Medusa Head
Aquarium Advice Activist
*screams*
OMG, I've got oto fry!!
- Thread starter Medusa Head
- Start date
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An t-iasg
Aquarium Advice Addict
What a cute pic! Congrats, good job! 
TankGirl
Aquarium Advice Addict
You ROCK! That is really an amazing accomplishment -
rubysoho
Aquarium Advice Addict
wow!! that is awesome!! any idea on what caused them to mate??
FishLover14
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Congrats i know otos are really hard to breed.
Dan
Dan
Medusa Head
Aquarium Advice Activist
I don't know if they'll survive, I know they have to eat bacteria from other oto poop in order to get their digestive system going, but judging from the poop trail coming out of that one they might be alright. Besides that, this happened completely unexpectedly in my 42 gallon planted goldfish tank... with five large egg shaped goldfish. I'm not sure if the goldfish will end up eating them, and I can't really catch the oto fry because they are lightning fast... so then again, since the goldfish are such slow lumbering hulks, they probably won't be able to catch them and won't be much interested in them anyways. I have Ramshorn snails that lay eggs all the time and my goldfish don't like to eat them.
There are only about 5 otos in the tank, and I'm unsure of oto breeding habits. I'm guessing they are egg scatterers and the eggs must have fallen into the foliage of my plants. Or if they nested they certainly had the plants to do it in. I would estimate there are between 6-12 fry that I could see anyways. There's probably more.
My tank is very overcrowded... 5 goldfish, 5 otos, 2 dojo loaches, 3 Borneo suckers, 2 zebra plecos, 2 rubbernose plecos, 3 bushynosed plecos, 5 Siamese algae eaters, various snails, and 6 African dwarf frogs.
Plants include purple cambomba, anacharis, crypts, anubias, melon swords, valis, moneywort, and creeping jenny.
Tank specs however are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 0 nitrates. Dissolved oxygen is 7.5-8 ppm, and phosphates are on the low end of the scale. Dissolved CO2 is between 15-20 ppm. I change 15 gallons of water and replace with RO/DI water once a week. After which I dose various bacteria, including Microbe-Lift, Stability, and Acquamarine Phosphate and Nitrate bacteria. I also dose the Seachem Flourish line of plant supplements. I use Seachem buffers to treat RO water for kH/pH and Kent Botanica to raise gH. (Seachem's Equilibrium has way too much potassium in it for my preferance.)
Here's my tank a couple of days ago:
I like equipment. Here's underneath the tank on the left:
The canister is the Eheim 2128 Thermofilter. Water goes from the tank to that. An airline taps into the Eheim's output line and feeds small amounts of water to an Aqua-Medic Nitratreductor 400 (which is sitting next to the Eheim) through the yellow Vario dosing pump. This is an anaerobic bacterial Nitrate Filter. It is extremely efficient and is able to maintain 0 nitrates in even my tank.
The Eheim's output goes to an 18W Ultra Violet TurboTwist Sterilizer which is mounted next to the Vario pump.
Now here's the right side underneath:
The output from the TurboTwist feeds an Aqua-Medic CO2 Reactor 1000 (which gets just a little over 3 CO2 bubbles per second). Since there is a lot of feeding and tubing involved, the water flow needs boosted. Above the Aqua-Medic CO2 Reactor 1000, I have mounted a Maxi-Jet 1200 Powerhead. The water finally returns to the tank from below the CO2 Reactor 1000.
Here's my controllers:
On top is an American Marine pH monitor. If pH falls below 6.9, CO2 is shut off. So far this has never happened. I recalibrate once a month and I hardly ever have to adjust it.
Underneath is the controller hooked up to a redox probe inside the Nitrate filter. In order for the anaerobic bacteria to effectively reduce Nitrate, the redox of the water must be negative, between -50 to -200. If it drops below -300, the bacteria will become septic and start to sulfate, producing hydrogen sulfide. It's not that dangerous though, because as soon as hydrogen sulfide hits oxygen rich water, it turns to sulfate which is relatively harmless. The controller turns the Vario dosing pump on when the redox falls below -200. If the redox rises above -200, the controller turns the Vario dosing pump off. This keeps the redox around -200 all the time. The Nitrate Filter has its own internal pump that keeps all the water inside circulating from top to bottom so no "dead spots" form.
Finally here's the tank thermostat hooked up to the Eheim canister:
In addition to all of the above, there is an Aquaclear 300 HOB filter on the back of the tank.
Additional filter media includes Seachem Purigen, and I also run a diatom filter once per week.
There are only about 5 otos in the tank, and I'm unsure of oto breeding habits. I'm guessing they are egg scatterers and the eggs must have fallen into the foliage of my plants. Or if they nested they certainly had the plants to do it in. I would estimate there are between 6-12 fry that I could see anyways. There's probably more.
My tank is very overcrowded... 5 goldfish, 5 otos, 2 dojo loaches, 3 Borneo suckers, 2 zebra plecos, 2 rubbernose plecos, 3 bushynosed plecos, 5 Siamese algae eaters, various snails, and 6 African dwarf frogs.
Plants include purple cambomba, anacharis, crypts, anubias, melon swords, valis, moneywort, and creeping jenny.
Tank specs however are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 0 nitrates.
Dissolved oxygen is 7.5-8 ppm, and phosphates are on the low end of the scale. Dissolved CO2 is between 15-20 ppm. I change 15 gallons of water and replace with RO/DI water once a week. After which I dose various bacteria, including Microbe-Lift, Stability, and Acquamarine Phosphate and Nitrate bacteria. I also dose the Seachem Flourish line of plant supplements. I use Seachem buffers to treat RO water for kH/pH and Kent Botanica to raise gH. (Seachem's Equilibrium has way too much potassium in it for my preferance.)Here's my tank a couple of days ago:
I like equipment.
Here's underneath the tank on the left:
The canister is the Eheim 2128 Thermofilter. Water goes from the tank to that. An airline taps into the Eheim's output line and feeds small amounts of water to an Aqua-Medic Nitratreductor 400 (which is sitting next to the Eheim) through the yellow Vario dosing pump. This is an anaerobic bacterial Nitrate Filter. It is extremely efficient and is able to maintain 0 nitrates in even my tank.
The Eheim's output goes to an 18W Ultra Violet TurboTwist Sterilizer which is mounted next to the Vario pump.
Now here's the right side underneath:
The output from the TurboTwist feeds an Aqua-Medic CO2 Reactor 1000 (which gets just a little over 3 CO2 bubbles per second). Since there is a lot of feeding and tubing involved, the water flow needs boosted. Above the Aqua-Medic CO2 Reactor 1000, I have mounted a Maxi-Jet 1200 Powerhead. The water finally returns to the tank from below the CO2 Reactor 1000.
Here's my controllers:
On top is an American Marine pH monitor. If pH falls below 6.9, CO2 is shut off. So far this has never happened.
I recalibrate once a month and I hardly ever have to adjust it.Underneath is the controller hooked up to a redox probe inside the Nitrate filter. In order for the anaerobic bacteria to effectively reduce Nitrate, the redox of the water must be negative, between -50 to -200. If it drops below -300, the bacteria will become septic and start to sulfate, producing hydrogen sulfide. It's not that dangerous though, because as soon as hydrogen sulfide hits oxygen rich water, it turns to sulfate which is relatively harmless. The controller turns the Vario dosing pump on when the redox falls below -200. If the redox rises above -200, the controller turns the Vario dosing pump off. This keeps the redox around -200 all the time. The Nitrate Filter has its own internal pump that keeps all the water inside circulating from top to bottom so no "dead spots" form.
Finally here's the tank thermostat hooked up to the Eheim canister:
In addition to all of the above, there is an Aquaclear 300 HOB filter on the back of the tank.
Additional filter media includes Seachem Purigen, and I also run a diatom filter once per week.
grimlock3000
Aquarium Advice Addict
Unfortunately, even clean water and hundreds of $$$ in equpment does not help with fish bumping into each other and stressing out because they have no place to go. Especially in a hex tank, where there is less horizontal area for the fish to go
Well.......maybe so, but still.....they're reproducing.....and that's a good sign.......right? I mean, otto's!!! Who breeds that in a Community tank!!! That's an accomplishment i believe, although you may have a point in the fact that they might bump into eachother some of the time.....
8)
8)
webmoose said:
That popped into my head too, but I looked up otto fry on google, and they look pretty similar - of course, the pictures were blurry, so I feel like I'm trying to figure out if they're Nessie fry (ie, don't take my word on it).
TankGirl
Aquarium Advice Addict
Your plants look great, especially that madagascar lace - I know they only do well in cooler temps.
So if you remove your nitrate then do you dose nitrate for your plants? I have a CO2 injected tank and the plants eat up the nitrate, which sits at zero unless I dose.
So if you remove your nitrate then do you dose nitrate for your plants? I have a CO2 injected tank and the plants eat up the nitrate, which sits at zero unless I dose.
Rocket2001
Aquarium Advice Freak
Unfortunately, even clean water and hundreds of $$$ in equpment does not help with fish bumping into each other and stressing out because they have no place to go. Especially in a hex tank, where there is less horizontal area for the fish to go [/quote]
Grimlock,
How could you question that set up and spontaneous spawning?
Whatever he's doing it right
[/quote]Grimlock,
How could you question that set up and spontaneous spawning?
Whatever he's doing it right
After looking this whole thread over, I'm sure of a few things. The tank is over crowded but very healthy. Most fish won't spawn unless conditions are acceptable.
Those are pleco fry. Nothing wrong with that deli-conker. Good job on achieving the spawn.
Those are pleco fry. Nothing wrong with that deli-conker. Good job on achieving the spawn.
Medusa Head
Aquarium Advice Activist
I was just thinking they might be pleco fry as well. They certainly look a lot like the otos though, and from what I've now read, otos do breed readily in an aquarium. They are egg scatters; the female deposits eggs and they stick to surfaces, any surface, including tank glass. That seemed to further reinforce that they are otos. I of course will keep an eye on them and see what they turn into.
I know I will at some point have to remove some of the fish due to overcrowding. Even with all of the overstocking side effects removed, the "bumping into each other" issue is the one thing that can only be remedied by a bigger tank or removing fish. When the tank was started, all the fish were little. I will probably give some of the fry to friends or my LFS as they get bigger (providing they survive). As it stands now though, everyone stays out of each other's way OK.
I know I will at some point have to remove some of the fish due to overcrowding. Even with all of the overstocking side effects removed, the "bumping into each other" issue is the one thing that can only be remedied by a bigger tank or removing fish. When the tank was started, all the fish were little.
I will probably give some of the fry to friends or my LFS as they get bigger (providing they survive). As it stands now though, everyone stays out of each other's way OK.
