Why aren't my otos eating the algae in my tank?

[Rmills1997]

Well I'm new to planted aquariums and when I added an extra 20 watt bulb on my tank and started dosing with liquid carbon I got a huge algae explosion. I realized I was leaving my light on too long and I need to get some more plants so they can get a lot of nutrients instead of the algae but I have 2 Mystery Snails and 2 oto cats and neither of them seem to be doing much cleaning. The mystery snails I have seen eating algae wafers but they mostly just cruise on the bottom of the tank. I have only seen one of them once on a rock that had a lot of algae on it. I have 3 panda cories and they seem to get more algae than both of the other combined. I got the snails on Sunday. I got the otos Tuesday and I only see them sitting on leaves. I haven't seen them really "sucking" on anything except things that don't really have any algae on them.

 

[flitabout]

Well it depends on the type of algae. If you are talking about something like bba it's to tough for otos and most algae eaters. The only one I know that eats that is a SAE.

 

[Rmills1997]

It's mostly brown and green algae and a little bit of hair algae

 

[siva]

IME mystery snails are useless for algae but I have found oto's to be very effective. They will be more comfortable in a larger group so if your stock allows for it you might want to consider adding 1-2 more (1 per 5 gals max). Mine definitely go to work on the algae at night and just hang in the plants during the day, so try to observe them after the lights have been out for a while.

 

[flitabout]

What size is the tank? You may need more otos if the tanks size allows. The brown algae will go away on it's own and they generally won't eat the hair types of algae.

 

[Rmills1997]

Yeah, they do seem pretty useless. I'll definitely keep an eye out for them to see if they are eating any algae. I think they must be eating some because their stomachs look pretty full. I think I'll go out and get some more sometime next week.

 

[Rmills1997]

Its a 29 gallon tank. I already have a betta, 3 platies, a guppy (small), 6 glowlight tetras, 3 panda cories (plan on getting 2 more and they're always quite small), and plus the 2 otos and 2 mystery snails. I'm getting a shipment of 10 cherry shrimp that will hopefully be coming in on Wednesday or Thursday next week plus a bamboo shrimp in the future. Would my tank be overstocked if I got 2-3 more ottos?

 

[siva]

Great, they definitely are if you see full bellies. As long as this tank is atleast 20 gals that will work, but be careful not to overstock them. Many will not eat any prepared foods so once this algae problem is taken care of they can easily starve if overstocked.

 

[DragonFish71]

Stop feeding them algae wafers and let them work on the algae only. Seriously. They won't starve.

 

[Rmills1997]

I don't think I'll have a problem with the algae running out, I had barely any algae in my tank until I started dosing and added the extra light (which I started on Sunday and I put less than the recommended amount) and BAM my tank had a ton of algae in it by Tuesday. Hopefully I will be able to decrease the amount of algae production in my tank but if it continues to grow at half the speed it is right now I think the otos will still have a lot to munch on.

 

[siva]

No, if it's properly filtered and maintained it is not overstocked.

The betta is probably going to eat your cherry shrimp.

I recommend you keep bamboo shrimp in atleast pairs..but the bamboo shrimp and a betta will not be compatible. Basically betta needs slow moving water and bamboo shrimp needs fast. The betta with it's long fins cannot handle the type of flow a bamboo shrimp needs. Filter feeding shrimp rely on filtering food out of the filter flow with their fans. They need heavily planted well established tanks and even then can require supplementation with microfoods.

 

[Rmills1997]

I put the algae wafers in there for the cories, as they really don't eat that much algae. I haven't seen the otos on the algae wafers at all.

 

[siva]

I don't think I'll have a problem with the algae running out, I had barely any algae in my tank until I started dosing and added the extra light (which I started on Sunday and I put less than the recommended amount) and BAM my tank had a ton of algae in it by Tuesday. Hopefully I will be able to decrease the amount of algae production in my tank but if it continues to grow at half the speed it is right now I think the otos will still have a lot to munch on.

This sounds like an ideal tank for hard to supplement algae eaters like otos

 

[Rmills1997]

I hope so! If I get anything positive comes out of all this algae I will be happy.

 

[Toad]

I would invest in some bottom feeder wafers, cories need proteins too.