Trouble shooting: Are my snails killing my Otos?

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

So I put 6 of my home grown Otos in my "Angry Man" tank. They've been in there a few months. Used to see them quite a bit on the sliced cucumber I leave for them, rarely on the hikari algae wafer (mind they were all raised on both). I don't see them often otherwise and recently less than that. Because of the existence of those two foods my bladder snail population has exploded (not to unmanageable stages but absolutely more than I would like). I remove them from the tank when they are in large groups on the foods but they just keep coming. My 3 horned Nerites do a good job of keeping back algae and occassionally munch on the cucumber. The Black Neons even poke at the Hikari. 

Today I saw one of the Otos flashing around the bottom of the tank, not swimming right. After a long car chase I was able to HAND CATCH the little one who was put in isolation. Shortly thereafter they passed. 😞 There was no outward signs of illness. The only thing of note was a less than rounded belly and instead of being white it was pink-ish as if from the inside not outside. My sad thought is that it died of starvation? My concern with this tank is that maybe I can't put anymore algae eaters in here- maybe I should pull my Otos (if I can catch them)- and put them back in general population of the Accidental Oto tank. I spotted 2 of them, who were attached to wood and seemed ok at the time, no idea where the rest were camping out- my Otos tend to be nocturnal. They have no competition for food in the Accidental Oto tank- I think there's too much competition in the Angry Man tank. 

What do my forum friends think? Should I move the Otos out? Pic of the Angry Man tank for reference attached. (2nd pic is more recent)

Edited October 17, 2021 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Colu]

You could increase your light intensity to encourage more algae and add some assassin snails to keep the population of bladder snails in check

[Guppysnail]

I’m sorry for your little guy 😢 If they are that prolific already I would move the otos. Constant food and they will populate to a point they overwhelm the bio filter that other critters suffer but they will not.  I have moved 90% of my bladders to the lfs and to one tank that has no BN fry because of too much food available all the time.  I just keep pulling them of coarse you never get them all. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Colu I may do that until I remove my Otos. I'm leaning more that direction. If I have no bottom feeders then I have no/less snails. 

@Guppysnail I'm sorry for them too. The unfortunate thing is because they are hard to see they are also hard to monitor. I pull the snails when I can and put them in my bird bath, if they live good on them. I'll just keep the Nerites and get middle dwelling fish for that tank to go with the Black Neons. 

....catching the Otos is going to be a chore....

Edited October 17, 2021 by xXInkedPhoenixX