lone oto

[mgkaelen]

i'd like to move my otocinclus from my 10 gallon (planted) to my 30 gallon (unplanted). i hate to say that i had 2 oto's but one a few weeks after i bought him; i know they can be difficult to acclimate. the pH, NH3, and temperature are identical in both tanks. the nitrates are slightly different, but i just did a water change a few hours ago and did not check the water conditions since then. will my oto survive the change in tanks? WHY are they so difficult to settle into tanks? i've had him for so long that i don't want to kill him as soon as i put him in the new tank, but i'd like to start a brackish or palaudarium tank since he's the only fish in it. any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Meredith]

I have heard that otos do better in planted tanks than not. They also do better in groups. I have two but I am planning on getting more. I moved my otos from a 55 to a 10 (to be medicated) and back again to the 55. I have had them for around 3 months...I think. Any way they did fine and I only have a few live plants in my 55. I would say give it a shot.

 

[cginflorida]

I'm not sure, but you might have to worry about the pictus cat eating the oto. Anybody else have thoughts on that?

 

[Mofo2713]

www.otocinclus.com for all your oto needs....

 

[lannen]

My understanding is that most of the initial die off among oto's is from the poor handling/treatment they receive while transported (at least this is apparently dominating belief now). When they are captured and transported, they are not given the food that they need (algae and diatoms) since they are usually kept in clean water. This causes them to lose symbiotic bacteria/microbes in the gut which aid in digestion. If these are lost, then even when they are given food, they are unable to make use of it. (I don't know any of this personally, just from a lot of reading/conversation)

If your oto has been living happily for several months, then I would think that it should be fine to transfer it to another tank, because you have now seen that it is healthy and over the period of worry. And as Mofo said, www.otocinclus.com is a great place to start for info.

Good luck

[edit] As long as your 30 gal tank has algae your oto should be fine in there, but I often see oto's apparently eating off of the leaves of live plants. I don't know about the compatability with the other fish.