Oto Fry Update

[Nanotanks]

Fresh vegetables seem to do wonders in breeding them; as you can see in the pic the fry are constantly on/around the zucchini, squash, spinach, and mulberry leaves I put out. It's a community tank, so the shrimp like them too.

 

I noticed and got footage of the oto breeding dance on 3/15, so the fry in the attached pics are roughly two months old. I have seven surviving that I have counted concurrently, but there may be more hiding out.  

[Lowells Fish Lab]

I have a few questions if you have time:

How many adults were in the tank when they spawned? 

How large is the tank?

What is your water like and what temperature do you keep the tank at?

Are there corydoras in the community?

Thanks for any info you can provide. 

[Nanotanks]

Sure:

Low Tech, Heavily Planted 20 gallon tall, aquaclear 50 filter, with a fluval planted nano 3.0 light on a ten hour cycle, and an airstone.

I plant cycled the tank, and the otos were the first in, with 12 adults. I lost three in the first week 

Water parameters: 0-5ppm nitrate, 0 nitrite, 50ppmGH, 80ppmKH, 6.7pH. Water temp is 73-75 degrees F. ~110 avg. TDS. I test twice a week and keep a notebook.

It is a community tank, with crystal red shrimp, 8x ruby tetra, and 8x tucano tetra. No snails, no corydoras.

I feed fresh veg, ominvore micropellets, hikari algae wafers, frozen bloodworms, cattapa and mulberry leaves, and glasgarten shrimpbaby and shrimpdinner.

The tank is heavily planted with a cave made from hardscape rocks and petrified wood. Stem plants in the background. Here is a pic, I try to take one daily. Please excuse the dust and brown algae, I clean and do 30% water changes every Saturday, but the crypt parva always gets brown algae because I overfertilized with root tabs, while the s. repens eats 'em up.

[Lowells Fish Lab]

Thank you for the detail! It's a beautiful tank, algae and all.

[Nickyjax]

That’s a great looking tank and congratulations on the oto fry! 

[Nanotanks]

The tank after a cleaning:

[KATE]

Reading through this thread as my Otos just bred and I woke up to five little fry cruising around my heavily planted 20g! Thanks for this additional info! Quick question re food- what did you feed the little ones? Thanks!

[Nanotanks]

Hi, 

Congrats on your oto fry! Mine eat a lot of stuff, but their favorites are blanched veggies like squash and zucchini, and algae wafers. They also eat my shrimp omnivore wafers, and I try to not clean any of the glass but the front, so they can get the soft green algae and diatoms off of it. I also feed glasgarten ShrimpBaby and Bacter AE.

 

Here are two, about three months old, still able to fit on the same anubias nana leaf, and one a little younger on some squash.

 

 

[KATE]

Amazing- thanks for the information, they seem to be doing pretty well, but they’re so small I can’t get decent shots just yet! Thanks!

[Nanotanks]

I'm now on my third round of oto babies. There are six new ones that are just now old enough to get photos. I now have the eight original, the eight first generation, and now six second generation otosinclus. The water is slightly tannin stained from the mulberry, cattappa, and oak leaves I put into the cave once a month.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Nanotanks

[Colu]

Congratulations pretty soon you will have a herd of Otto's

Edited June 29, 2021 by Colu

[Nanotanks]

July Update- Oto wheel! They LOVE blanched zucchini, and they are so cute sharing it. This is the third batch of adolescents eating some zuke. I've also noticed one of the otos is gravid again, so more babies! I might have to get another tank started for them if this keeps up. 

 

[CT_]

I'm so glelous of all of you! @KATE
what are your parameters.  I want to see what kinda range they breed in.

 

Also @Nanotanks @KATEh  do you all have any photos of the parents and or know what species you have?

[Nanotanks]

I actually have a video of my original otos mating dance, but I don't know how to post it here.

 

Here are some links:

Oto dance

Gravid Oto Getting Ready to Lay Eggs

Getting busy on a Crypt Leaf

 

I am pretty sure it is the common otos (Otocinculus vittatus) that are breeding, although it may be Silver otos (Otocinculus vestitus).

 

My water parameters are: 0-5ppm nitrate, 0 nitrite, 50ppmGH, 80ppmKH, 6.7pH. Water temp is 73-75 degrees F. ~110 avg. TDS.

 

I feed dried leaves (cattapa, mulberry, oak), algae tablets, ominvore tablets, freeze dried hydra, frozen bloodworms, blanched veg, and glassgarten bacter ae and shrimpbaby. There are also breeding CRS shrimp in there, and ruby tetra.

 

The otos seem to prefer the omnivore tablets and the blanched veg. Those always draw a crowd. The Bacter AE I also find useful for growing the soft green algae they eat.

 

I do not have any snails, or any other bottom feeders other than the shrimp.

Edited July 20, 2021 by Nanotanks

[CT_]

I'm guessing O. vestitus because of the tail sploch.  I think I remember someone saying vestitus is the one most likely to spawn in captivity too.  but it may be vittatus because my memory isnt perfect and even the names of these species have to all look alike. 😠

 

 

[Nanotanks]

Heck, I'd prefer if it was the Silver Otos. Sounds way more regal than Common Otos. 

Oto fry with eggsack. I wish I had a microscope.

Two week old fry

One thing I have noticed about LFS wild oto vs. the the tank bred is that the latter are fearless. I can do a water change with the siphon inches from a tank bred oto baby. I hardly ever see the original wild parents, ever. Sometimes when I accidentally dislodge a rock, or bump into the stand, I'll see them. Otherwise the OGs are ninjas.

They even swim different. The parents swim so fast I'm afraid they'll hurt themselves, the others kinda mosey around. I sometimes mistake them for a tetra they swim so lacksadaisically.

 

Edited July 20, 2021 by Nanotanks

[KATE]

Howzit all, I went out of town and they laid again, but cannot seem to find any survivors from that batch. I still have one fry from the original spawn. My tank is heavily planted with wood for food and weekly 20% water changes. I feed algae wafers primarily. pH is 7.6, gh is 30, kh is 80, no nitrites or nitrates and temp hovers around 78. I should try some Botanicals in the tank... This set up was never intended to be a species only but given the breeding activity might very well stay that way. Have either of you had any luck with cohabiting and keeping up the breeding? Also, My female remains gravid (she looks like she is going to pop, constantly)... Are there health risks here (?) 😬 thanks good people!