Chloe and Speckles

Oh, and for me, I got my betta first and then after 5 months got my ottos. It's commonly said on the internet to add the other fish first before your betta so that the betta doesn't have an already established territory, but my betta doesn't flare AT ALL and I had a feeling he was lonely so I got 3 ottos for him. Absolutely no issues for me. They're now totally friends and my betta's behavior has changed since their addition. He now swims around more of the area of the tank, and he spends a lot of time close to the ottos swimming less like he used to and more like an otto. I think this is him trying to interact with them. I got ottos because they are on the list of tankmates for bettas, and even though they need some protein they are mainly herbivorous, so I in theory don't have to worry about my betta eating their food. A major cause of death in bettas is health complications related to obesity, so I'm trying to make sure my betta doesn't get overfed. He's a plakat so he can actually get an adequate amount of exercise, he doesn't have too long of fins weighing him down. Waiting for my repashy soilent green to arrive so my betta can stop gorging himself on the ottos' algae wafers.

My betta and my 3 otos are totally friends in my 7.5g tank!

I set up my tank next to my recliner chair that I sit in a lot. My betta and ottos are totally friends, and it's really cute when they have moments. Sometimes an otto will swim on top of my betta and they swim together for a little bit. A lot of the time my betta will swim near to where the otos are going up and down the glass, and then swim less like he normally does and more like an otto, I think that's him interacting with the ottos. Sometimes when my betta is just about to get food and he's all excited, he'll bump into some of the otos on accident and they totally take it, they don't swim away or anything. I got my ottos so that my betta could have some friends, so it took me completely by surprise that the otos are interacting with me. They generally swim up and down the glass in a particular corner of the tank, but if I shake my head slowly at them, one or two of the otos swim over to the side of the glass that's closest to my head and swim around looking at me. And my betta is really interactive, but this is getting long so I'll leave it at that. It's SO CUTE and I didn't expect to get this much out of keeping fish.

That is freaking awesome. I might actually get one of those. Does it work well for you? Does it have any downsides? I just have a betta and ottos, so no competition here.

A tiny siphon. Like, the same width as aquarium tubing. I've taped a straw to aquarium tubing and use that to siphon the green hair algae off my plants. I feel like such a thing would be really useful for aquascaping in general, if it doesn't already exist.

An aquarium auto-feeder that doesn't feed too much. Instead of having one compartment of food inside the auto feeder, maybe there would be like 30 tiny buckets that you'd fill individually with a day's supply of food. The auto feeder would just dump one bucket's worth of food at a time, and so you'd always get the right amount of food in the tank. Maybe it could feed as many times a day as you'd like as well, and then each bucket would represent half, a third or whatever day's worth of food.

I'm a newbie, so I don't know much, but here's what I've done with my tank, it always has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates. I obtained cycled media from a local fish facebook group member, and I also put a whole bunch of pothos in. I have about 10 small pothos cuttings which I've floated at the back of my tank, all of which have grown extensive roots by now. Plants actually favor taking up ammonia to nitrates, so I'm not sure, but I feel like if I didn't obtain cycled media and just adopted my betta when the pothos had grown extensive roots, that I'd still be at 0,0,0. And the bacteria colony could take however long it wanted to establish itself. So long as you read 0,0,0 it doesn't really matter right?

I'd just like to say this, because it surprised me -- the reason airstones help with oxygen exchange isn't because some of the oxygen in the bubbles diffuses into the water, it's because the airstone creates surface agitation. It is not the bubbles but entirely the surface agitation that makes there be more oxygen exchange. So if there is, for example, plants blocking the surroundings of the airstone and it's not actually agitating the surface of the water, maybe move the plants so that there can be more surface agitation.

A Youtuber I follow called Fins and Whiskers deliberately puts a few pieces of hay meant for feeding gerbils in her otocinclus tank. The hay creates biofilm, and microorganisms appear and feed on the biofilm for her.

If you're not planning on interacting with your fish, I'd definitely recommend against a betta. I was very surprised when it was evident that the betta I got wanted attention from me just like a dog or a cat would. He swims up to the glass when I'm there all the time, and most of the time it's not feeding time. He follows my finger, and is really curious and looks at different objects I show him. He'll swim through my fingers and gently peck at them if I put my hand in the tank. Nowhere I researched seemed to tell people just how interactive bettas are, at least for mine I feel like he's more of a pet than what you would typically think of a fish as. I only know about bettas, I don't know about any other species of fish, but if you're setting up your aquarium and don't plan on making an effort to interact or play with your fish, I highly recommend not getting a betta.

Wow, there's so many people who never see their ottos. This is so strange to me, I guess I have super brave ottos. I only have 3, and they're in a 7.5 gallon tank with a betta, but during the day all 3 of mine rest on the very front glass panel. My betta is totally friends with them as well. I sit by the tank in a recliner a lot, and they don't hide at all when I'm there.

Why not keep the pool filter sand and stick root tabs in it? I have just plain old river gravel and root tabs for my heavily planted tank. I just need to replace the root tabs every few months. No problems with nutrient overload so far either.

Wow. I hope someone figures out how to breed otocinclus, and lots of other species of fish, en masse in captivity so that fish don't need to be poisoned and starved.

Ooo thanks good to know!! If I buy an English cucumber I'll peel the sides and give a slice to my otos! I my otos are just going to get tidbits of groceries I would normally buy for myself from now on.

That's interesting that some of yours died even though they had full bellies, I hope mine don't die off inexplicably too. Awwww Momma Oto was the one that survived, what an awesome fish. Who knew she'd go on to produce 30+ babies!! And pshh, good thing you have another LFS option.

Gasp that's terrible!!

Ohh Spark is a great name for a betta! Curlycue is very good too, you have good names. What are the snail snacks you use? It's probably good that your baby otos were raised on Hikari, when people adopt them they're probably going to be continuing to feed the otos algae wafers. Hmm cucumbers, did you blanch the cucumbers beforehand? I have lebanese cucumbers on hand, they're a bit denser than normal cucumbers, I might chuck a slice in the tank.

Hi all, new member here! I was just wondering, I've read and been told that it is common for otocinclus to die within the first few weeks of arriving home. I know on Aquarium Co Op the reason stated is that once otos are starved beyond a certain point they lose their appetite and then they're as good as dead. However, another reason I've heard online for this is that otocinclus rely on a symbiotic relationship with gut bacteria, and during shipping (slash time at neglectful pet stores) the gut bacteria can die off if they're starved for too long. So apparently even when they come home and they're eating the food you give them, since their gut bacteria died off they can't actually digest the food they're eating, and they die. They're full but at the same time they're unable to absorb any of the nutrition, so they starve and die. I have found lots of people on forums and care guides stating this, but I've tried and tried and haven't found any scientific papers or been able to find who actually discovered this about otos. I was just wondering if any of you know of the source of the knowledge that otocinclus rely on a symbiotic relationship with a bacteria in their gut to digest their food? A lot of you are so much more experienced than I am, am I just looking in the wrong places? At this point I'm starting to question whether someone just made this up to account for mysterious deaths in the first few weeks of bringing otos home, and then it just caught on because people accepted it at face value.

Omg hi xXInkedPhoenixX!! I saw your post on accidental breeding of otos, I want to be just like you!! Unfortunately I'm experimenting with other food sources than algae wafers at the moment because the day I brought the otos home, as soon as I put an algae wafer, Speckles utterly gorged himself on it. It looks like Speckles is pregnant with twins. I put some fresh vegetables in yesterday and Speckles has had I think less success with them. I'm getting Repashy Soilent Green soon, it wasn't available locally for me so it'll be a few weeks until it is shipped. I'm hoping that will be less palatable for Speckles and greatly favored by the otos. It's incredible that your little oto fry eat your crushed Hikari algae wafers!! I'm going to try to make some gel food before the repashy comes, I'm going to steal your idea of having a fish bowl in for the otos' food ^-^

Hi everyone!! My name is Chloe. I have a 7.5 gallon/30 liter tank with a plakat betta named Speckles (hence why my username is Chloe and Speckles)! Speckles is very interactive, loves food, has at least 4 shades of iridescence on his body, and is a super non aggressive betta fish. A few days ago I got 3 otocinclus as well, and Speckles has gotten along with them perfectly so far. I haven't got any pictures of the otos yet because I experimented with spirulina powder to feed them and it turned my water green...I'm in the process of doing water changes to bring things back to normal.