Question regarding oto cats and algae

[philipraposo198]

I am in the beginning stages of planning / designing a planted tank 55g or 75g.

I read a lot about using high light and not using c02 = alot of algae.

I also read about oto's and how they are always hungry for algae.

is this just too easy of a solution?? Or am I missing something very important?

 

[libertybelle]

Otos will only eat certain types of algae. They will eat brown/ some soft green and biofilm. Algae eaters are only a part of keeping algae to a minimum...most of that in a planted tank comes from healthy plants that outcompete the algae. It's about balance between light nutrients and growth. When one of those gets out of whack voila...algae bloom.

That being said: I almost never scrape the glass in my tanks. Ever. It's been months....maybe a year since I did. Only have one oto in a 30 (Started with 3 but lost two of them over time.) along with a horned nerite snail and a few ghost shrimp. Between them and the healthy plant growth the most I ever do is pull out a tuft of black brush algae every once in a while.

 

[philipraposo198]

i knw oto's need to be kept is groups as to not get stressed. i was thinking about 5-6 and see how that works.

 

[libertybelle]

yup that would be best. Mine acts totally normal on his own, but I would like to pick up a couple more myself since I lost the other two. I don't want to go higher than 3 in my tank though because above that they would need a lot of supplemental feeding. That's why you can't really have them in tanks smaller than 30, I guess.

I would start low and add more over time so you can see how they do and see if your tank can handle that many. They can be hard to acclimate to pellets/veggies so you don't want more than your tank can handle. Definitely wait a while so you have lots of algae when you put them in. They're mostly starved when you first get them home and you will be shocked how quickly they dispose of it for you.

They are great little schoolers and a ton of fun to watch. One of my favorite fish. Freaked me out a few times because I saw one hanging off of plant leaves at a weird angle and thought it had kicked the bucket. Turned out he was just chilling....upside down hanging of a plant...

 

[philipraposo198]

cool, thanks for the tips.

 

[libertybelle]

mmhmm. Those guys are the best. When I had 3, I was always putting vases of water on a window to grow algae and then putting it in my tank for them to clean off. I couldn't keep up! Possibly why I no longer have 3. They really don't take well to pellets.