Dragonchild85
Aquarium Advice Regular
Hey.
I ordered two otos for a 40 gallon tank covered in algae, and will be here Wednesday. (I order them through a lfs that does not stock live animals, but there is a fish breeder in town that every monday they order their fish, and he drops them off Wednesday on his way into work). I didn't realize at the time how small they stayed. As I did more research, I discovered that apparently, they are extremely difficult to keep alive for the first couple of weeks. Any advice here? I do NOT use the float bag method...I ease the bag and water and fish into a clean pitcher used only for fish transport, and use airline tubing to syphon off tank water at a rate of ~5 drops per second. I was told by a saltwater pet store manager that this is the best acclimation method on 'delicate' corals and etc, so why not use it on less delicate freshwater fish?
Aside from that, is there anything I can do to keep them alive? Do oto's get territoral? Is 2 too many, or too few? I orignally had plecos, but they get too big, and the other lfs told me corydoras would clear up the algea, but they haven't been, they stay on the bottom playing tag and scavenging like they are supposed to. So, otos are my next best bet I guess. The tank is covered...the main ship decoration looks very realistic due to the algae, and all the glass rocks are 'furry', and my mom commented that the 'live' plants were coming along very nicely...she thought the plastic were real due to the algae!
My light is on for about 6 hours a day, during peak visual times, and I am extremely reluctant to cut it back anymore. If otos won't do the job, then I'd rather remove the decorations and scrub every week then cut back the light.
After much rambling, any and all advice would be most welcome!!
I ordered two otos for a 40 gallon tank covered in algae, and will be here Wednesday. (I order them through a lfs that does not stock live animals, but there is a fish breeder in town that every monday they order their fish, and he drops them off Wednesday on his way into work). I didn't realize at the time how small they stayed. As I did more research, I discovered that apparently, they are extremely difficult to keep alive for the first couple of weeks. Any advice here? I do NOT use the float bag method...I ease the bag and water and fish into a clean pitcher used only for fish transport, and use airline tubing to syphon off tank water at a rate of ~5 drops per second. I was told by a saltwater pet store manager that this is the best acclimation method on 'delicate' corals and etc, so why not use it on less delicate freshwater fish?
Aside from that, is there anything I can do to keep them alive? Do oto's get territoral? Is 2 too many, or too few? I orignally had plecos, but they get too big, and the other lfs told me corydoras would clear up the algea, but they haven't been, they stay on the bottom playing tag and scavenging like they are supposed to. So, otos are my next best bet I guess. The tank is covered...the main ship decoration looks very realistic due to the algae, and all the glass rocks are 'furry', and my mom commented that the 'live' plants were coming along very nicely...she thought the plastic were real due to the algae!
My light is on for about 6 hours a day, during peak visual times, and I am extremely reluctant to cut it back anymore. If otos won't do the job, then I'd rather remove the decorations and scrub every week then cut back the light.
After much rambling, any and all advice would be most welcome!!