Whats 'normal' behavior for otto fish?

[Radish]

My otto fish has recently been very active, bouncing from leaf to leaf and skipping around the tank glass. He is usually very mellow and stays still most of the time.

I thought he might have been hungry but he didn't go for the algae wafer I plopped in. Very strange behavior indeed. I'm a worried fish owner O__O. I've just never seen him this active.

Any thoughts?

10 gl
2 10 watt fluorescent lights
Planted tank

 

[F.Sam]

Depends. I had 2 otocats in a really heavily planted (read jungle) tank. Both very mellow and sitting on echinodorus leaves all day. I don't think they had ever touched the substrate..
After a big rescape, my tank is more open (no more dense jungle). They are way more active, even searching the substrate for food.



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[Radish]

Thanks for your reply. I have been trimming and moving a couple of things around for the last couple of days, so that could be part of it.

How can you tell when they are eating enough?

 

[F.Sam]

Feeding them algae eaters is not really sufficient. It's like putting your cat on a diet of dry food, they like some 'wet food' too. Otocinclus absolutely love zucchini (but it might take them a while to figure out that it's edible).
As for them eating enough, look at their bellies. If they are concave (hollow) then it's a signal that they can't find enough food in the tank. Convex means that they are well fed.
With oto's, pleco's, SAE... I suggest putting in a big slice of zucchini once a week. Note that oto's are listed as algae eaters only, but they will eat scraps of flake food as well if they come across some.


Sent per three-eyed raven..

 

[IllusionX]

I have about 15 of them in a 65g. I feed mines algae wafers and shirakura shrimp wafers because we have shrimps in the tank too. They will eat along. Mines are very active, they will go scrapping the substrate and from leaf to leaf and on the glass. They always have a round belly.

They may also be disturbed by other fishes and corydoras. So they go around finding other spots.

 

[Gillie]

They should always have some degree of activity, as they are almost always grazing. I also wouldn't worry too much about feeding it prepared foods, otos feed primarily on soft algae and biofilm. I have 4 in my 20 gallon which are all healthy, active and have received no extra feeding in the year that I've had them.

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[Radish]

I made a Gif of him. It's probably too small to tell, but I think he is okay. I will try some zucchini later this week.

 

[Gillie]

It looks good to me

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