The Accidental Oto Keeper

[Torrey]

On 4/13/2022 at 5:13 PM, Minanora said:

They do... I will try this when the time comes. But I'm sure the guppy gang will bully them out of the way. Lol. They like to be caught in the net when they aren't the fish I'm trying to catch.

The harlequins are afraid of me when I have a net or the scissors. They're not as hard to corner as the otos for sure, but I haven't tried to actually catch them yet. Catching otos requires removing hardscape in my experience. 😛 

You can always set up a couple of buckets, lol. Allow the guppies to have their way, and deposit them into a bucket while you catch your harlequins. Second bucket of tank water will be available for your harlequins. I have found Dean & Cory's paint strainer to make sorting fish, and prepping fish for shipping so much easier!!! 

In fact, that's where the endlers went, so I could sort breeding stock I am keeping, males that needed to go in a slow grow out tank, breeding stock to sell, and feeders for Karma and my LFS.

[Minanora]

On 4/13/2022 at 5:11 PM, Torrey said:

You can always set up a couple of buckets, lol. Allow the guppies to have their way, and deposit them into a bucket while you catch your harlequins. Second bucket of tank water will be available for your harlequins. I have found Dean & Cory's paint strainer to make sorting fish, and prepping fish for shipping so much easier!!! 

In fact, that's where the endlers went, so I could sort breeding stock I am keeping, males that needed to go in a slow grow out tank, breeding stock to sell, and feeders for Karma and my LFS.

I forgot I had that! It's been hiding in the back of my shed.... 

Man, that thing would have saved me so much time on my last guppy sorting. *Facepalm* Thank you for the reminder!

 

@xXInkedPhoenixX I commend you for using such a small net. I've had much better luck catching things with the small and medium co-op fish nets. I thought larger would make it harder, it's actually the opposite.

Also that is a really cool ruler. I may modify one of mine to use in the oven like that. I often burn myself with the oven racks in some way or another.

[Torrey]

On 4/13/2022 at 7:46 PM, Minanora said:

forgot I had that!

So glad I am not the only one who does that, lol

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Ha @Minanora well, I don't think I have a choice with a smaller net...especially with that tank- it's not huge being a 20 and there are too many things to get in the way. I'm used to using it. The ACO net kindly sent to me from the CARE package is too big for any of my tanks unfortunately, but it's good for straining buckets!

My ruler comes in handy, had it for a long time now- it came that way, In the kitchen retail industry we used to call them push-me pull-yous (as a Dr Doolittle joke) but they're called rack jacks typically. That one has a magnet on the back and the ruler is a bonus- not all of them have it. I have another one that's just a rack jack with a magnet. 

EDIT: I just checked, they still make my exact one!

Check this out on Amazon
Fox Run Oven Rack Push/Pull Kitchen Ruler, 0.25 x 1.25 x 16.5 inches, Brown https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B000BRNF7M/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_i_SYFRQ1FT01PT5JXA6JJ3

Edited April 14, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Minanora]

Good point with the smaller tanks. Plants and hardscape really limit options.

In my son's 20 High I use a big box "Chase" net, a second big box net, and then the co-op small net as a body block to keep them from going down in the back corner under the bubble bar. To catch his oto I still had to pull out the castle and the bubbles. 😂

He's now living his best life with the other otos in the 75.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

THE PERMANENT BREAKDOWN: The Accidental Nursery aka Cocama Hotel

Bittersweet day really. A reminder of my disappointment with the last batch of 10 Tiger Otos that died for an unknown reason. I won't be needing the 5.5 Nursery because once I move all of my Accidental Otos to the Parent Tank- the Accidental 10 gallon will again be the ACTUAL grow out tank- that is if they decide to spawn. More on that tank another day. 

Today was the day to hopefully finish mourning the loss of the last batch- breaking down a tank can be like that. I thought about what to do to make a positive replacement yesterday when I decided today was the day for the move. I didn't like the idea of an empty space to remind me what was there. I wanted something lovely to look at- and something alive. A fish tank wasn't an option- not now anyway. 

I decided since there is some decent light in this room (that wasn't available when I made my Scapes from Scraps Snail vase) plants could be it. I also didn't want my cats messing with said plants. I have several plants in my house but they are high up on stands and shelves- these would be on a desk they are on fairly regularly (My Singapura loves to sit on TOP of my Flex9 and I have no idea why- one doesn't really need to know, the only reason is: Cat). So a terrarium was the solution. Because of the recent Scape from Scraps we did on the forum I remembered all the nice things my local nursery had to make up container gardens like this so a trip was planned. $400 dollars later (don't worry the terrarium wasn't the most expensive part- I went a little nuts for my patio container garden and spent most of yesterday on that which was fun 😁). For this particular project I came home with a glass terrarium and 3 small plants.

This morning after regular tank maintenance (basically spot cleaning and putting out new foods for the Otos, Hillstream and Snails). I got to work on breaking down the tank. I took the plants out and put them in a 3/4 gallon QT tank after pulling the Narrow leaf off the wood - the Anubias were easy since they're attached to rocks. Question for all of you reading: What do you do with plants that were part of a sick tank (tossing is not an option to me- I can't do that to live plants)? How do you "sanitize" them? Bleach, Hydrogen Peroxide, bomb them with meds or salt, or just QT for "X" amount of time with frequent water changes? Any suggestions would really help, thanks! All the hard scape and equipment was boiled- will be left to dry and store since none of it has a space for now- and the substrate was put in my patio container garden. Bye bye tank: 

This tank may end up at either my Mum's house or my Nephew's house for their frogs or fish after a bit more rigorous cleaning and drying out. If I start another tank in the future I might start another Aquatop rimless as I love the one I have. For now though I'm going to stay at 5 tanks. 

Back to the terrarium.

Space made after tank removal I put an office LED light on the desk for those days like today the light isn't great (thankfully I got my patio stuff done yesterday- it's raining today which is terrific but not exactly gardening weather despite having an overhang). It will help me see the plants a little better anyway (will likely help the aquatic plants) and it's unobtrusive. 

As I said at the Plant Nursery I got the terrarium and 3 small plants. I already had dirt, gravel from an old tank, driftwood from a beach walk, oak from the forum Scraps fun, and glass that I just pulled out of the Parent Tank. I sat at my kitchen table putting together the terrarium. Put in 2 pieces of Oak to have the vine plant climb (to train it I used a couple of bag ties). Placed the plants. Layed the gravel. Where the blue glass stream was going to be I put some white gravel down so the blue glass would show better. I hammered the firepit glass with a hammer on cement (wow, that glass is a lot stronger than you think- I had to double bag it and it still wasn't breaking) so that I could have a small stream (piece of driftwood and the oak formed a bridge nicely). I had enough crushed glass leftover to add to my Faerie Gardens outside (their "streams" get dirty/lost over time despite my maintenance efforts so it's a nice spruce). I think it turned out rather nicely and I've never kept any of the species I chose: 

New beginning people. New. Beginnings. 

[Torrey]

On 4/14/2022 at 1:28 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Question for all of you reading: What do you do with plants that were part of a sick tank (tossing is not an option to me- I can't do that to live plants)? How do you "sanitize" them? Bleach, Hydrogen Peroxide, bomb them with meds or salt, or just QT for "X" amount of time with frequent water changes? Any suggestions would really help, thanks! 

Odd Duck would be the one I double check with, but I used to do a double dip of plants back when I was a very paranoid, newly getting into planted tanks and still convinced by "fish dogma" that snails, hydra and planaria would be the death of my tank, and every plant could bring disease (different than what you just went through, and also a huge motivating factor for research to ensure fish health).

All the research I could find indicated a 4 hour alum bath would kill the majority of organisms (look at Irene's video for how to dose the alum) and hydrogen bath would wipe out any viruses or bacteria.

I can attest that this has wiped out the cyanobacteria on my plants, so I am thinking if the disease that took your babies was bacterial or viral, this should work. In a 64 oz potato salad container (I wasn't going to dose the entire 5 gallon bucket of plants in case it didn't work, and I found the smaller container could actually treat more plants at once than I thought) I half filled with ZeroWater, and added enough H2O2 to get a bit of bubbling action (I didn't measure exactly, sorry... ~7:1 water:peroxide) and then  I dumped my affected plants I pulled out of the 4' tank and swirled them in the water. Left in overnight, and only the red plants displayed any damage to foliage (leaves were very fragile and thin). According to some more research, 4 hours probably would have been sufficient.

Snails have cleaned up the damaged foliage from the cyanobacteria being on the plant, and the H2O2 essentially 'eating" the bacteria. The stems are already showing new growth.

I accidentally left one plant in the mixture for 12 hours, and that is too long. TheH2O2 broke down the iron in the cell walls, and the plant died.

Hope that very informal and horribly documented science experiment helps, lol

[Minanora]

I love the terrarium! What is the plant with the white edges on the leaves? Snowbush?

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Minanora  thanks! It wasn't labled (to my frustration) but I think it's a type of creeping fig (varigated). In my experience they can be rather prolific so I'll probably need to do a decent sum of trimming in the future. 

Edited April 15, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Odd Duck]

Like @Torrey, I would probably do peroxide treatments to the plants to be safest.  Up to 5 mls per gallon for 10 minutes in still water will kill algae so it should disinfect well, too.  Then restart filter or stir or dilute/rinse, and I would then consider them ready to go.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

OTOCINCLUS VITTATUS AND COCAMA: From the Accidental to the Parent Tank PART 2

On my days off it was again time to move some Vittatus from the Accidental to the Parent tank. I'd decided to catch another 15 as I did last time only this time there would only be Vittatus since the Cocama are already all moved. 

Everyone in the Parent tank seem to be doing really well- though I skipped this week's water testing my Seachem Ammonia Alert was its usual cheery yellow (no ammonia) and I did a little cleaning of the new HOB since it got a little clogged from my moving stuff around prior to the new fish. 

So I took some stuff out of the Accidental tank and lowered the water level and went about catching little Otos (the most I caught at a time was 2- they are ridiculously fast and sneaky). I eventually did catch the 15 and put them all in my ACO catch cup with a little tank water. I acclimated them with a cup of water every 15 with Parent tank water (since parameters are typically the same but temp is a little lower in the Parent tank). 

Once they're caught they were actually pretty calm with occasional group freak outs when I approached but everyone looked good/healthy. 

Here is a short Google video of the release: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Um6vs9eCSWqQedFBA

A pic just prior to it: 

So now there are 30 Accidental Otos in the Parent tank with the 14-20 some-odd Parent Tank Otos. They are so tiny in this 20 gallon so I'm not surprised the tank is able to maintain so many (the 10 gallon has never had an issue with a HOB and Sponge). I'm not sure how many I have left in the Accidental tank- at least 15 more but next week I might be able to say I've moved them all to their now permanent home. 

What's cool is I think now because there are so many I get to see them more often. I can spot about 10 at a time now hanging out at the front of the tank, mostly along that piece of Spiderwood you can see in the front right corner (just so happened to be Momma Oto's favorite spot to lay eggs). I can't say that I've seen her- she may have been run off by all the new comers (they're a lot smaller than her so that's why I think that)- but since they're a non aggressive species I'm sure she's fine. I am really liking this species only tank. 

Edited April 22, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX
Typos are lame

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

OTOCINCLUS VITTATUS AND COCAMA: From the Accidental to the Parent Tank THE FINAL EPISODE

Today was the day to move whoever the last of the Vittatus were from the Accidental Oto Tank to the Parent Tank. I knew there were at least 15 or more but decided I'd catch all and release them to their new home today. Took my trusty ACO Catch Cup and went about removing things from the Accidental tank. 

Ultimately there were 25 Otos! Bringing the total roll call of Otos moving from the Accidental to the Parent tank to 55 Otos (5 of which were the Tigers so 50 Vitattus). As the last 2 batches they were acclimated in the Catch Cup with a new cup of water every 15 minutes for about an hour and a half.

I counted them several times to make sure I counted correctly can you spot them all? 🙂 

So they were dispersed in to the Parent Tank, extra food and cucumber placed for the new batch. A close eye will be kept on the tank for the next few days but all should be well- I'm not expecting any issues. Prior to the release: 

Short Google video of the release:https://photos.app.goo.gl/AwWFKRrtPjEoR9zR6

Can you believe the Parent tank has 71 Otos!? Give or take a couple- exact number in the Parent tank has never been verified just approximated.

In the next few weeks I'll decide how the future of the Accidental Oto Tank looks. I've moved some of the plants including an Amazon Compacta to the Parent tank and a few of the plants attached to rock and wood. There are a few left in the Accidental tank that I plan to use in my Mum's upgraded ADF tank- I'll be recommissioning the sanitized 5.5 that was formerly known as the Accidental Nursery to give her ADF a bigger tank with more reliable filtration. That is being built tomorrow. I'm thinking of creating a bare bottom "bonsai" style tank with the Accidental and will likely add a couple of Nerites to keep the tank going. I may even move it from it's current spot but haven't decided yet. Time will tell!

Edited April 27, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX
Typos are lame

[Tihshho]

This is such a cool compilation of information, love the breeding, sad to see the downsides of what you experienced but thanks for documenting it all for us to learn from your experiences!

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

OTOCINCLUS VITTATUS: The Accidental Oto Tank

I cleaned the tank today, put new (read: cut more precisely) sponges in the HOB, sucked up the last of the detrius. Went to do a water test on it later and.....

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

THE ACCIDENTAL NURSERY/COCAMA HOTEL: A New Life

This will be the last time I mention this tank here, but I thought I'd bring up what has happened to the 5.5 gallon that was once the tank above. It is now my Mum's upgraded African Dwarf Frog tank. I built my Mum a 3 gallon Glofish brand cube tank last year around this time for Mother's Day. She really wanted to have frogs again (had them many years ago). The plan at the time was only to get one but she felt it would be unfair to the frog to only have one. So we got 2 tiny frogs with the plan to upgrade at some point to a larger tank- especially if there were parameter issues. Well coming up on a year the tank has done REALLY well- very rare water changes, mostly just top offs. The plants (just 2 Anubias, some Duckweed and Guppy Grass) were getting bigger and the Guppy Grass was pretty and healthy but despite taking out some from time to time still made it a bit harder for the ADF- which are 3x the size they were when we got them- to move around. The pump also took a dump on us a month or so ago and the replacement we ordered didn't work quite as well as we'd hoped but it was hobbling along. 

This was a good place to put the 5.5 and give it a new life. So after sanitizing the tank, getting more substrate and pulling some plants from the Accidental Oto Tank and grabbing some Parent Tank stem plants, wood, one of my spare air pumps and sponge filter. I drove to Mum's and went about setting up the new tank. Mum likes the blue glass streams I typically do and was a part of her old tank so this was done again in a little bit bigger way. The ADF, "Angry White Frog" and "Best Friend" with their buddy Nerite "Nerd" got put into my trusty ACO Catch Cup with some wayward Duckweed while I worked on the new tank and my Mum broke down the old one, pulling some rocks, and the blue glass that was in there to be used in the new tank. 

New tank was set up, frogs were temp acclimated (failed to tell Mum while she was filling bottles to try and match the temp of the old tank water (there was a 6 degree difference so it took some time to acclimate from 77 degree original tank to 71 degree new one). Thankfully the temperature came up by the time I left later in the evening. The frogs are seemingly MUCH happier with their new digs- AWF (Angry White Frog) was moving around from one side to the other many times. BFF (Best Friend) found their spot by the heater between the tank wall and the Hygger sponge (blends in perfectly too, the little one eluded me for a while with that). She wanted to add fish but I've talked her out of that by telling her we were already pushing the bio load and size limit with 2 frogs in a 3 gallon and still kinda doing it in the 5. She understood. I told her when the tank gets established she could add ONE Nerite. I had to give her some hope for another creature, haha. Anyway, she loves it- more importantly the ADF are better off too!

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

OTOCINCLUS VITTATUS: The Accidental Oto Tank

Morning roll call aka daily Where's Waldo: Still only one little one in the tank so far, seems to be coloring up some. Plenty of biofilm and a litlte detrius at the bottom of the tank to keep them going. I'm going to leave them loose in the tank for the time being. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

OTOCINCLUS VITTATUS: The Accidental Oto Tank: After Dark

Still just the one fry. Night pictures look like Sasquatch photos....

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

OTOCINCLUS VITTATUS: The Accidental Oto Tank: Morning Roll Call

Well folks I've spotted #2! Seems maybe a day behind the other Oto. I did a pretty good inspection and haven't seen more. I'm not sure where they were laid though normally it would have been on the underside of the Amazon leaves. I moved it about quite a bit when retrieving all the Otos out last week and did some pretty aggressive cleaning/detrius vacuuming so honestly I'm surprised we have 2 survivors!

[PineSong]

On 4/13/2022 at 8:11 PM, Torrey said:

You can always set up a couple of buckets, lol. Allow the guppies to have their way, and deposit them into a bucket while you catch your harlequins. Second bucket of tank water will be available for your harlequins. I have found Dean & Cory's paint strainer to make sorting fish, and prepping fish for shipping so much easier!!! 

 

Do you have a link to where Dean/Cory show how to use this paint strainer? I am interested in anything that will make fry sorting easier. Getting ready to throw in the towel and just call everything a colony, lol.

[Guppysnail]

On 5/3/2022 at 11:55 AM, PineSong said:

Do you have a link to where Dean/Cory show how to use this paint strainer? I am interested in anything that will make fry sorting easier. Getting ready to throw in the towel and just call everything a colony, lol.

Boys to one side girls to the other.  Line up single file please or you do not get to go out for recess 🤣. I feel your pain.

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

OTOCINCLUS VITTATUS: The Accidental Oto Tank

Baby Otos: Stupid cuteness, level 10: 

Oto baby 1:

Oto baby 2:

So I caught the older one today mid poop. I'm always happy to see this function because it tells me things are going ok- my personal motto, if you can't eat and you can't poop then life isn't worth living!

Here is the older one near a penny for size reference- it's coloring up fast/well....different than others I've seen.... could it be a Tiger? Wouldn't that be cool.... only time will tell!

Ever see an Oto baby eat? It's ridiculous, short google video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/DRyn3ivxyTpt12jf9

Edited May 3, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

OTOCINCLUS VITTATUS: The Accidental Oto Tank

Spiral poops make me proud! 🤩 Today it was from the smaller of two 2 baby Otos.

Other one doing good as well! 

[Guppysnail]

Us fish moms are so proud of 💩.  Babies look great. ORD 😍

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

OTOCINCLUS VITTATUS: The Accidental Oto Tank

So after the last update, the fifth was the last day I saw both the Oto babies. In a 10 gallon tank despite being bare bottom with very little in it-- unless they are in their typical spots (within an inch or 2 of the top of the tank)-- they aren't easy to find and I suspect as they get older they'll spend less time at the top. I'm wondering if I should try and catch them this week and do my typical floating breeder trick to start them on commercial foods. Today I only spotted one but I took it as a good sign: 

I had tested the tank on Thursday but have yet to post a parameter test lately: 

Temp: 77.5 (no heater)

PH: 7.6

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 40 (*sigh* never changes)

KH: 2/35.8

GH: 107.4

 

Also just a mention of the Parent tank since all 71 Otos are now in there I'm keeping an eye on the stability of the tank and its recent test: 

Temp: 75.2 (no heater)

PH: 7.6

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 40 (never changes)

KH: 4/71.6

GH: 143.2

 

Oh and Mum's ADF tank is doing well though she mentioned via call recently that there are some "stringy hairs" growing on the plants and surfaces. I said, "welome to hair algae". So I advised her to turn the timer on the light to 8 instead of 10 hours and we'll see how it does- she's never had hair algae. 🙂 She snapped this pic:

I mean, we can't get much cuter than that. 

Edited May 10, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Tihshho]

That look from the ADF gave me a chuckle. It's the typical, "Excuse me, can I help you?"