[Otocinclus in Quarantine - How Much to Feed?]

@Lennie Thanks!  I have good luck with anubias.  For a long time, the plants in my tanks were primarily anubias and java fern.  It had been maybe 15 years since I bothered to try anything else.  This past fall, I decided to overhaul my aquascaping and ended up with spare anubias - hence they are now in my quarantine tank!  The Q tank also sports a gangbusters colony of phyllanthus and salvinia that I purchased as part of my overhaul.  I keep the Q on a seed-starting shelf (I am also a gardener) under seed-starting lights, so the plants are doing pretty well.  The plants provide shade so the light isn't so bad for the otos! 

Regarding my misspelling, I made a hot mess of the word - I posted with something like "ototincinclus"!

[Otocinclus in Quarantine - How Much to Feed?]

Thanks for the feedback! Yes - all of the purchased otos are alive and well (knock on driftwood). All of them have taken to the zucchini so I have an opportunity to check them out when they are grazing. I picked up some Super Green recently but haven't had a chance to make it up yet. Will try that soon. I will also prep some additional types of veg to see what else they will enjoy, but am excited that I got over the hump of finding a food that they will eat. I tried Hikari Algae Wafers but they were not interested in it at all.

I suppose my next challenge will be planning and executing their eventual move into my 75 gallon long-established tank. I've started using some water from the main tank in the q-tank water changes but haven't yet set a date or timeline for the move.

Thanks again for the encouragement!

[Otocinclus in Quarantine - How Much to Feed?]

Hi All!  First-time poster to the forum. 

I just obtained a small group (5) otocinclus.  I started them in a quarantine tank that have been running at 24 hours lighting for a couple of weeks (per Cory's article).  We are just starting Week #3 in quarantine.  I have been feeding them Soilent Green and blanched zucchini.  They are eating both, but they really seem to LOVE the zucchini.  When I first gave them a half moon slice of zucchini, they took about 2 days to eat it all.  Then they were only taking 1-1/2 days.  Now they are consuming the zucchini in about 24 hours.  I am sure small snails in the tank are helping them with the task, but I do observe the otos eating on the slice.

My question for the forum is should I replenish the zucchini as soon as they finish off the last piece or is there any reason to fast them for a a day (or more) in between?  I do feed with Soilent Green after every few zucchini slices.

Thanks for any insight you might be able to provide!

Kristina