New otos

[marchmaxima]

Hey all.

I am a very proud mummy. Three weeks ago, I acquired three very spritely otos for my tank. I had been toying with getting a bottom-feeder for a little while and after some research, decided on these guys.

I think I have been lucky! From the moment they went into the tank they have been acting really happy and showing no sign of shyness. They took care of the diatoms on every surface except the sand and left a ton of poop I had to clean up. These guys poop a lot!

And I didn't realise that they'd go through 2 slices of zucchini every 60 hours. You'd swear this is all they're eating

All in all, I think that they all acclimated really well and the harlequins and scissortails are leaving them alone.

I've tried to get some photos, but I'm struggling. I'll keep trying. Here's one.

And I haven't posted a full tank shot in a while. So here's one.

 

[neilanh]

Congrats!

 

[pitt420dude]

Nice tank march maxima.

I have two otos, and I know Neil has some zebra ones. They're really great fish aren't they? They have all the pro's of a clean up fish but none of the con's. They're not shy, go anywhere, and seem to roam about with complete immunity from the social structure of the tank.

 

[neilanh]

Yeah, I love the little guys

 

[An t-iasg]

Beautiful tank! It grew in quite nicely. Congrats on the otos!

 

[spilzer]

Oooh, I love otos. I really want to get a trio (or more?) for my 29 gal. Congrats on the addition to your tank.

 

[pitt420dude]

One thing though, I've heard they're fickle when acclimating and have experienced this myself. I think I've bought five and now have only three. I read that once settled into your tank though, they are quite hardy and last for a long time.

 

[marchmaxima]

Yeah, unfortunately we can't get the zebra ones here. No LFS I talked to had heard of them (????) But in any case, I'm really happy with these guys. They were pooping lots when I got them, so I don't think that they were in that bad shape. One was a little pale to begin with, but an hour in the tank and his colour was more pronounced than the other two.

Yeah the tank has grown in well. I have to trim the blue stricta often otherwise it just grows straight out of the tank. I'm still getting the odd leaf that looks like it has a deficiency, but I'm going to wait another month and see how the extra potassium doses affect it.

And who said Anubias Nana grows slow?! The nana plant on the top of my driftwood piece on the right has grown 5 new leaves in the last 3 weeks.

 

[neilanh]

Wow, that's impressive growth!

I have 1 anubias that shows signs of deficiency that appears to be a potassium deficiency, but I dose a lot of K already and no other plant is showing that deficiency, so it's kinda got me stumped. I moved it to a different area of the tank to see if that happens to change anything, cuz I'm kinda stumped on it.

 

[marchmaxima]

yeah, but it sat doing nothing since Feb. Your deficiency sounds a bit like mine. Affecting one plant, only a little bit but you're dosing.

Mine are elevated and its the higher one thats getting the growth. Don't know if you can do the same to yours, however you already have higher lighting than me, so that's probably not the issue.