Otto fry

Awoke this morning to find Otto fry (Otocinclus vittatus) attached to the front my 26g bowfront. Thought those Ottos seemed playful recently... Planted tank with nothing else but CRS and fully grown neon and cardinal tetras. Other than hanging some veg, adding some algae scraped from my jungle tank, and keeping the tetras fed, any suggestions on giving these unexpected arrivals a fighting chance?

wow - congrats on the fry i don't have any suggestions, your plan sounds pretty good so far

Outstanding! Hopefully they'll survive predation by the tetras. In my experience, babies survive best when left where they were born. You could yank the tetras and re-home them temporarily.

I never had enough algae to keep my ottos alive

Are you still seeing babies in the tank?

Over two months on and the Otos continue with two eggs about every 10 days. All have hatched and survived. 14 at last count. Here's a shot of the "trough" with some Otos, shrimp and Repashy Soilent Green. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

They look great! What cute little fry Thanks for sharing the pic

Very cool! I tried the Repashy Soilent Green and was impressed. I am going to have to order some more.

ca you give more details on your tank?

filtration water flow .cleaning schedule

and a ph and such of your water..hardness ext if you can?

I would really love to know ^_^ i want to breed my group of ottos

Ditto that!

DoubleDitto that!

Muwahahahahaha

Cute pics!

Just did an article for GSAS Newsletter. If your're not a GSAS member, here's some info:

I started with 4 wild-caught otos -- 1 female and 3 males (best guess). I purchaaed them from Rachel O'Leary (http://msjinkzd.com/) and they arrived fat and happy.

I believe what started the breeding was food. I had a long-ignored anubias that had been growing algae for at least 20 years. (I left the hobby after marriage and job took more of my time. I kept the tank going as a home for the anubias and a few geriatric fish. Eventually, only the annubias remained and the tank ended up in my daughter's room. It was subject to benign neglect and received only very occasional water and filter media changes. When the tank began to leak, it was decision-time: give up the old anubias or get back into the hobby. It was a convenient excuse...)

I added the anubias to the oto tank about a week before the fish arrived. The tank was fully cycled and about two months old. They went after the copious algae with gusto and spent 3-4 days working until the leaves were pristine.

At last count there were 14 juveniles paired in size. So it looks like batches of two eggs each. So far, I've not found the eggs (and haven't looked too hard, not wishing to disturb the tank). I have observed mating behavior on several occasions.

The oto tank is a 26 bowfront so it is relatively tall in proportion to width and depth, measuring 16" from gravel to surface. It has pressurized CO2 and high lighting levels with 2 T5 HO and 2 T5 NO fixtures. Heavily planted with a mix of mostly broad-leaf plants -- swords (Kleiner bar, green ozelot), annubias, ludwigia, Lindernia rotundifolia, as well as moss and driftwood.

Sharing the tank with the otos are mature neon and cardinal tetras and a burgeoniong population of RCS.

The tank is heavily filtered with 1 SeaClear 30 HOB and 1 Eheim 2213 canister. The canister has an inline heater so temperature is very contstant in the 75-75.8 F range. I place a 100ml Purigen packet in the HOB.

Water is from a deep well. 20% water changes minimum of 2 times a week with sporadic addition of RO water (approx 20% of water in the change). All water treated with Prime out of concerns about heavy metals rather than chlorine.
pH 7.5
GH 6.0
KH 9.0

Oto foods are Ken's Premium Vegetable Sticks (with and without calcium), organic peas and an occassional slice of organic zuchinni (kept pre-sliced and frozen). To supplement the narturally occuring aufwuchs graze for the fry, I grind the vegie stricks with mortar and pestle into a fine powder, mix with a bit of tank water and add a few drops. I do this in the morning on days when I will be changing water. Just started with Repashy Soilent Green -- and they love it. I pour the food into a silicone mini ice-cube tray. When the gel sets, I freeze the cubes in a sealed container. Right now, I put one cube in the tank in the morning and one at night. The Reapashy is great because it doesn't "melt" and foul the tank while providing an always-avaiable food source.

Thanks for the information! That's fantastic

Again, great job successfully breeding them.

great information, thanks for sharing.