What are these?

[alia258]

Looks like either an otocinclus vestitus or otocinclus vittatus to me. Those are the most common Oto types that the vast majority of fish stores carry.

Okay, so can I just go with feeding them algae discs and keep them in the tank?

 

[ashleynicole]

They also love cucumber and zucchini.

 

[Luananeko]

Okay, so can I just go with feeding them algae discs and keep them in the tank?

Yep, they will usually eat the algae discs if they can't find enough other algae in your tank. Even better is if you can blanch a slice of zucchini or cucumber and put it in there in one of those veggie clips. If you do that once a week the otos usually love it. They also appreciate having driftwood available to munch on for roughage. I have three otos that look like yours and they usually are either hanging out on my driftwood, the side of the tank, or attached to a big plant leaf.

 

[alia258]

They attach to my micro sword and melon sword. I don't know where I'll find driftwood. Can I just use a stick or something? I heard something about running it through the dishwasher with out soap to clean it

 

[Luananeko]

They attach to my micro sword and melon sword. I don't know where I'll find driftwood. Can I just use a stick or something? I heard something about running it through the dishwasher with out soap to clean it

Any good LFS will sell driftwood. If all you have is Petco and Petsmart, you can go out to your local streams and find wood that's already in the water. There's some safety concerns around that though as certain types of wood tend to deteriorate badly, and you'll likely want to boil it for a while (30 min+) to get rid of any creepy crud and critters. If you don't want to risk that, check on Aquabid or any online fish supply store and there's plenty of places/people that sell aquarium safe driftwood chunks.

 

[alia258]

I live in arizona, so there are no streams. Can't I just use a piece of bark or something like that?

 

[Luananeko]

Technically you can, but most wood will decay and foul up the water if you don't spend a lot of time preparing it properly before sticking it into the tank. This link has a good guide to DIY driftwood and covers the various things to watch out for: Driftwood in the home aquarium

 

[alia258]

Okay, so about those tannins, do they come in store bought wood, or do I have to clean out the wood no matter which rout I take? And will putting the wood through the dishwasher a few times without soap speed up the tannin removal process? Your helpful article didnt cover that. I do appreciate the help!

 

[Luananeko]

Tannins come from all wood. The only way to get rid of them is either to boil the wood for a long time (never heard of anyone using the soapless dishwasher cycle, but I would imagine it would have a similar albeit less effective effect to boiling) or to simply put carbon in your filter to clear out any tannins that do leech. I buy malaysian driftwood from my LFS and have never noticed much tannins when I run with carbon, even when I don't boil the wood. Most fish either appreciate or are indifferent to tannins, so it's totally dependent on whether you care for the look of them or not

 

[alia258]

I would not like brown water. It said that theyre an acid, so will it throw off my pH? I have a carbon filter (Tetra PF10) and it has the carbon bio bags. Will those be okay, or should I add an extra bag into the filter to help pull out the tannins?

 

[Luananeko]

Driftwood does tend to lower your PH, but you can counter that with argonite or crushed coral if it looks like it's affecting it too much. The carbon bio bags should be plenty to clear out the tannins. If you still see them, you can either put more carbon in, or give the driftwood a good long boil (2hrs+).

 

[alia258]

If I boil the wood first, then should the tannins be unnoticeable with my current bio bag? It's a few months old right now and growing a large amount of algae. I'll need to seed a new one soon anyway ^^

 

[Luananeko]

Yep, that should do fine. Especially if you're only getting a little piece for the otos, you shouldn't see any tannin issues. Even with a larger piece those should be enough precautions. If they aren't, either add more carbon, and/or boil the wood longer.

 

[miran3773]

Tannins can last a while, but isnt very noticeable, we only see it in the water bucket during water changes

 

[Jess1ca]

I have driftwood in my 55 African tank, I only boiled it for about 2 hours and haven't noticed any "blackwater" type look to my tank. It did lower my ph .2 but I run cc in one of my hob's to correct it. Tannins are great for fish, so I read, regular wc's ought to keep Ur water clear I love my driftwood, its a great addition to Ur scape

 

[alia258]

I'm thinking I might run to the pet store and get one of those terrarium half of a rounded log bark piece to put into my aquarium. Since its just wood, and partially because it's a cheaper buy than any aquarium wood I've ever seen (on rare occasions to petland) I doubt that it being meant for turtles will really hurt the fish.

 

[Jess1ca]

I'm thinking I might run to the pet store and get one of those terrarium half of a rounded log bark piece to put into my aquarium. Since its just wood, and partially because it's a cheaper buy than any aquarium wood I've ever seen (on rare occasions to petland) I doubt that it being meant for turtles will really hurt the fish.

Don't use reptile wood.

 

[alia258]

Don't use reptile wood.

Why not?

 

[Jess1ca]

Why not?

Lots of reasons. Most reptile wood is treated, I feel like it would probably fall apart faster. You want Mopani or Manzanita if u r gonna buy it from the pet store. There was a user selling some on here for pretty much the cost of shipping. I could get the name for ya if Ur interested. I bought some really nice pieces from em.

 

[alia258]

My mom doesn't like me handin out my address, but I will search for those names of wood instead. Maybe I'll have to save up an tough out a trip to petland, they aren't the best store but I've seen wood there before :/