Mysterious Oto Deaths

[GallifreyanFish]

I have a 20 gallon tank with a betta, some harlequin rasboras and five otos. But today when I got home I found two of them dead. I haven't tested the parameters yet but I will. I don't think it's water quality though because all the other fish, including the otos, are acting 100% normal.

The odd thing is that the little corpses looked really beat up. Their bellies looked kind of torn up, one of them was completely white, and it almost looked like their eyes were missing, although they might've just turned white from death. Could it have been the betta fish? Or is it more likely illness. They passed their quarantine fine. The betta has also been acting peaceful towards all other inhabitants, although he did seem pretty mad when I added them, but didn't hurt them in any way. Thoughts?

 

[George9]

Otos can be touchy IME, I had two die right off the bat for no reason. The wounds are probably from your other fish picking on the corpses, but we'll never know for sure

 

[kjacks]

How odd i had 1 of my 3 otos die today with almost the same problem except my betta is actin sickly now too .. im not really sure y but my water parameters were perfect so im at a loss ..hope u dont have anymore losses ..

 

[GallifreyanFish]

I tested the parmeters and everything was fine. I lost a third one so now I only have two I'm hoping the bump up the number again soon. It was weird because they were perfectly fine in quarantine. maybe I didn't acclimate them to the main tank properly.

 

[kjacks]

Not sure about that .. i know i didnt acclimate mine properly but i had a reason.. my sister bought 5 toger barbs n had them mayb a month left for the hospital n was gone 2 weeks didnt feed her fish came hoke saw the tabk was dirty bought 3 otos n just dumped them n to clean her tank .. then she noticed her barbs were dead n had been awhile .. left the otots n the tank n told me to come grab them if i wanted them which i didnt but couldnt just leave them. So i caught them n dunped them n a container with my tank water n brought then home.. thats been since june n they were fine until yesterday.. the other 2 r fine though

 

[ejaramillo01]

I agree wit George, Ottos are sensitive fish, that some times "just die". I read some time ago that is because Ottos are frequently caught from the wild rather than be tank raised.