First death

[logansmomma1228]

I am seriously about to cry one of the otos died. Anothre one seems pretty lethargic too. They were fine last night but I went to check on them and the one was dead on the glass :'( PEtsmart has a 14 day guarantee but Idon't want to be driving to saginaw every day to trade otos. That is a lot of gas

 

[MartinBlank]

Not that this helps, but I have read elsewhere online that Otos are fragile acclimaters, and a lot of people when buying them expect almost a 20-50% casualty rate. The ones that make it through the first week or two stick around long term, but that there is almost always some loss when buying them.

I don't know, this could be totally untrue, but I have read it in more than once place... *shrug*

 

[logansmomma1228]

Yes I have read it as well and was keeping on a close eye on them for that
I think they stress out super easily, I think that is why that one died. When I peak over there I see them fruiting out lol. It just makes me sad that the little guy didn;t make it.

 

[mommytron]

i'm sorry about your oto that sucks
but yeah, i've been told to buy more otos than you want to keep because chances are you will lose some. that's still crappy though, i hope the rest of them make it. have you fed them at all yet? maybe full bellies will perk them up

 

[logansmomma1228]

Yea I fed them as soon as I got them home last night. Then I tossed a couple extra wafers in the tank just in case. They are just very spooked out and I think he had a little fishy heart attack. I only had enough money for the 4 of them, but i will be trading out otos for a couple days it looks like lol

 

[meegosh]

How do you acclimate them? I would highly recommend a drip acclimation. I too have heard the same thing about them being finicky when it comes to new tanks.

 

[CA_BroncoFan]

Oto's are very very very fragile shippers and they very much like established water. I waited about 8 mo's before i got mine. I hate to say it but i wouldnt take it personal (meaning its not something YOU did) as theyre really just fragile acclimaters.

 

[logansmomma1228]

How do you acclimate them? I would highly recommend a drip acclimation. I too have heard the same thing about them being finicky when it comes to new tanks.

Honestly I kind of did a crappy job on that. I floated them but they were in the tank within an hour because I had a really busy day yesterday. I was planning on drip acclimating them but I was nervous to do it because I didn't want to do it wrong. The other three seem fine now but they do stress out real bad every time I turn on the kitchen light or go too close to the tank. So I am just leaving them and hoping that they will be ok when I check on them later.


I'm not taking it too personally, lol, I knew this day would come eventually but I was hoping it wouldn't be so soon

 

[dkpate]

When I first moved my BGK into the big tank, he was freaked out and would never come out of hiding. What I did was get a beach towel and cover the tank for about 3 days, except to feed him, and let him alone and check things out by himself with no outside distractions. After that, he came out at all times of the day.

 

[logansmomma1228]

I just went and put a towel over the tank. It is hard for me not to check them out, they are awesome and I love getting new fish! What worries me at this point is how they will handle moving from QT to the 10, and if Alejandro is going to mess with them or not. I am definitely going to drip acclimate them next time

 

[mommytron]

maybe before you get more fish you can do a test drip acclimation. like set it up with an empty bag to get yourself more comfortable with it.

 

[logansmomma1228]

I did do a test run but I am nervous to actually do it with the fish because I am worried that they won't have enough water in the bucket . Like if I dump them in my bucket the water will disperse and there won't be enough for them to swim in and then I don't want them to suffocate lol