Oto Eggs

[Alshain]

I think one of my otos is about to lay eggs. Problem is, I can't find any information on otos breeding in captivity. I'm fairly certain, she is getting huge and I can see the eggs inside her. So if I manage to catch the eggs before my swordtails get to them, what should I do?

 

[DarylF2]

My Oto laid eggs recently on an aponogeton leaf (at least I'm pretty sure it was her, as my Cory lay eggs a lot and theirs are larger, and Danios don't lay eggs on plants as far as I know). There were only a few eggs laid there, and they were quite small and very pale white. She are her Oto boyfriend were handing out nearby a lot, too, which is odd as they normally hand out on the tank sides. Unfortunately, before I got my breeding tank cleaned and set up, the eggs were gone (probably eaten). *sigh*

So, when you see the eggs, move quickly. I have my breeding tank all ready to go at a moment's notice now.

My plant was to snip off the leaf with the eggs and put it in my (floating) breeding tank. I'm not sure what to do after that, though. My Corydoras breed like mad and so I've never done anything to protect the eggs or fry (and I still went from 3 Corys to 20+ in a few months). Hopefully someone here can give some good advice.

 

[Alshain]

Thats my problem, she hasn't layed yet but my floating breeder tank has 30 swordtail fry in it and my 10 gallon tank hasn't cycled yet.

 

[bzbee]

Hi Alshain, congrats on the eggs! Please take photos to share if you can! It certainly isn't a common occurence, so you must be doing a great job. Do you have any setup parameters to share?

 

[maxwell1295]

I don't recall ever reading about someone breeding otos...this should be interesting.

 

[Alshain]

Tank is an Eclipse 12 system with all the standard stuff a Visitherm 100 and a floating thermometer. I turn the light on every morning when I get up and off every night before bed. The temperature is ~80 degrees (the heater doesn't ever kick in, its set for 76.. ah summer in Texas). I have 0 ammonia, 0 Nitrites and 10ppm Nitrates. I do water changes ever 2 weeks or so but more frequently because of the swordtail fry. I have 3 otos and while I'm not certain of this I believe the brown one is female (carrying the eggs) and the other two are a dark black so I think they are male. The PH is 7.2 and that the last test kit I have so thats all you get. The tank has a bushal of microsword, 1 radican sword, 1 watersprite, and several stalks of a stem plant that my swordtails love to eat. None of which are really doing to well to tell you the truth. The radican sword has grown pretty big, but its leaves are pale green and not what I would expect, but it is a strong light plant. The substrate is common pea gravel, there is one plastic "tree stump" ornament and 1 sandstone carving. Other than the flake I feed my swordtails, I drop about a half of a hikari algae wafer in every 3rd day and they feed on normal algae growth the rest of the time. I think thats the whole routine, I can't think of anything else.

Keep in mind, I've owned them for only 2 weeks so she may have had them when I bought her but I didn't notice. I don't think this is the case though.

EDIT: I guess I should also mention my waterchanges are done with TetraAqua dechor (I'm trying to use up the bottle before I start using Prime). My tap water has chlorimines in it and if tested after using the dechlor, it will show about .25 ppm Ammonia. My tank however quickly dispatches this into Nitrates.

EDIT 2: Pictures!