New Oto went pale!

[trochilids]

Spent today looking for SAE and Otos at the fish stores between Wasilla and Anchorage, Alaska. Guess SAEs are difficult to come by up here, and Otos sell very quickly. Only one store out of six had Otos, so I bought them both . Will add a few more to my 55 gallon as soon as I can find more. The two I got are already spending all their time cleaning the brown tips on my live swords!

The trip from the fish store is about 45 minutes, and by the time I got home one Oto was almost completely pale, except for the dark spot at the base of the tail. The other one in the same bag looked normal. By the time I released them in my tank the pale one was pretty much back to normal; and it looks perfect now. Craziest thing! I've had female betta go pale on me during transit -- neons, too (though not as extensive). Must suck to be a fish plopped in a small bag and transported across town...

Cheers!

 

[miniflea84]

The same thing happened to both my otos when I moved my tank recently. They were only in the bucket a bit over an hour, and although I put in a heater when I got to the new place, they may have gotten a bit chilly. It didn't help that I had a very difficult time netting them out of the bucket to put back in the tank. They were however completely back to normal very quickly one I'd gotten the tank set up again.

 

[joy13]

Otos are wild caught so it is a good idea to quarantine them. They go through a lot of stress even before reaching the store. I usually give them some broccoli when I first get them to feed them. The lack of color is stress usually in bettas I have never had an oto go pale. YouTube - Collecting Otocinclus affinis in their natural habitat