Lost Oto... Doh!

[grimlock3000]

Last night when I was turning the light off, one of my Otos was no where to be seen. I had looked in the tank about two hours earlier and everything was OK and the Oto was sitting on some driftwood. I search around in the tank for a about 15 minutes and did not find it. Finally I started moving tank decorations, checked in the filters, and still had no luck. My 10g tank would be almost impossible to jump out of, but I checked all around on the floor anyway. I finally gave up checking around on the floor, and started moving the gravel vac around to see if the fish was trapped in the rocks somewhere. It was in the rocks alright, just a little piece of skeleton and the rest of the fish must have been eaten! My Guppies and Betta ate up 90%+ of the Oto. Not sure how the Oto died, but I am shocked that so much of the fish was eaten.

I checked the water and everything was fine. Did a big water change just to make sure. Now I feel bad because I only have one Oto and they used to always be together. Same thing with the Cory, only one of those left now too. I want to at least pair the fish up but I would have too many fish in the 10g and my wife does not want me to get rid of the Guppies, doh.

 

[TankGirl]

Oh man! That is a shame! I have found those skeletons before, and it is not terribly unusual for the deceased to be eaten, but it does not make it any easier. Otos are probably one of the more common fish to be lost for unknown reasons.

 

[grimlock3000]

I have been putting a lot of effort into making sure they was plenty of algae in the tank for the Otos since my Otos would not eat anything unless it was on the driftwood or tank glass. At least now I can clean things up a bit.

I am thinking the Betta may have done it but I have no way to know for sure. The Oto and Betta frequently ended up resting behind the corner filter and the Oto would get chased out. The Tetra in the 10g tank has less than half a mouth and almost no fins and has been dodging death for a couple months now, so I am pretty disappointed in losing a healthy fish. Just another fishy mystery...

 

[myriam]

Oh geez grimlock, that's awful! Sorry about your poor little oto.

Now you've got me all nervous :| I have four of them and sometimes I can't find one or two, and eventually, within a day or so, I'll see all four of them again. I haven't a clue where they hide when I can't see them, although my big tank decor (a large mushroomy thing, see my Gallery) has a cave that I guess they must be hiding in for long periods.

It's so weird how fish eat the dead fish. I guess they do what they have to do.

 

[BrianNY]

Well here's how I look it at it. Small schooling fish (like otos), don't have a very long life span to begin with. In nature very few will survive to adulthood. Some fish (like people), are unfortunately genetically predisposed to die. We can provide the best possible environment and just not gaurantee a fishes health.

 

[William]

Oh geez grimlock, that's awful! Sorry about your poor little oto.

Now you've got me all nervous :| I have four of them and sometimes I can't find one or two, and eventually, within a day or so, I'll see all four of them again. I haven't a clue where they hide when I can't see them, although my big tank decor (a large mushroomy thing, see my Gallery) has a cave that I guess they must be hiding in for long periods.

It's so weird how fish eat the dead fish. I guess they do what they have to do.

I had a inch and a half long molly be devoured in less than an hour by the snails infesting the fry tank.

 

[myriam]

Whoa, I didn't even consider snails eating dead fish 8O

 

[malkore]

ottos can be very tough to keep. I'd put them in the 'delicate' category..and I always acclimate them to my tank for an hour before putting them in.

 

[ScottS]

I started with three. One died in 72 hours. The next made it a week. The last one lasted three weeks and was living large on cucumber.

Oddly, the last one had a real belly full one day, then the next day, it looked starved. It died within days. Off to find a small pleco. I give up on these guys as cool as they are.

 

[BrianNY]

How large is your tank Scott? I like the little guys too and I bend the rules for them. I buy 6 or 8 at a time and expect that only half will survive. Because they are so small, tend to hide a lot, and blend in with my driftwood and black gravel I couldn't tell you how many I still have in my planted tanks.