otocinclus love

[Ohad]

First time keeping these guys and I now have a favorite fish by far and a spirit animal.

My tank is at the end (hopefully) of the diatom algae time . Plants getting stronger and more colorful.

Meanwhile I got my cleaning crew to help my tooth brush . 

I had shrimp and snails before but man these guys are a cleaning machine. They are as cute as a button and so far ( only week two) no deaths . Playfully like guppies working in a group. Enjoy it so much. For people like me that are worried about keeping these because of their reputation. 

[Lennie]

They are great fish. But not a plant, algae or fertilizer 🤣

They are amazing what they do, but a bit limited! Generally "algae clean up crew" members all have a different role in the tank. They don't exactly eat what a shrimp, SAE or snail eat. Like SAE can eat hair algae/bba, nerites can eat green dots, snails can pick on hair algae, but these guys can't. They only eat diatoms, soft green algae and biofilm.

But again, besides all the positives, We all gotta keep the just because we love them.

Maybe you can even breed them and make the tank breds more common in the hobby!

Best of luck,

 

[Ohad]

Correct, while the Amano shrimp and the horned nerite ignores the diatom and focuses on the wood.

These guys loves diatom. Unlike the shrimp and the snails these have characters and I am in love 

[Lennie]

I see someone has never kept mystery snails! 😛

They are full of character!

But I see your point. If your tank was on diatom stage, I assume it is new? 

You may try to offer them some blanched veggies like zucchini or spinach, or some repashy and algae wafers to support their diet. Just organic and no pesticide is the rule. And peel the zucchinis just in case, as fish don't really eat the peel and the seeds.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Lennie

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

@Ohad as a big-time Otocinclus lover here, do yourself a favor and make sure you feed them supplemental food. They make quick work of diatoms and once gone sometimes this is when you'll see a death. They'll still eat the diatoms, no worries- but it's good to make sure they get their bellies full all the time. Algae wafers, Repashy and fresh foods like zucchini or cucumber, etc will help them stay healthy/happy! They are one of my most favorite fish for sure. 

[Ohad]

I

On 3/13/2023 at 4:54 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

@Ohad as a big-time Otocinclus lover here, do yourself a favor and make sure you feed them supplemental food. They make quick work of diatoms and once gone sometimes this is when you'll see a death. They'll still eat the diatoms, no worries- but it's good to make sure they get their bellies full all the time. Algae wafers, Repashy and fresh foods like zucchini or cucumber, etc will help them stay healthy/happy! They are one of my most favorite fish for sure. 

I got algae wafers from acop, and I feed them this on Mondays , Tuesday nothing but algae, Wednesday veggies, rest nothing but algae . Once there is less algae I will feed more for sure.

I was ready as everyone online scare you about them dying right away. But I was surprised to find really fun happy fish active all the time and eating non stop .

 

And yes this is my first "high tech" aquarium with some harder plants. Learning a lot 

[Lennie]

On 3/14/2023 at 2:24 AM, Ohad said:

I got algae wafers from acop, and I feed them this on Mondays , Tuesday nothing but algae, Wednesday veggies, rest nothing but algae . Once there is less algae I will feed more for sure.

I was ready as everyone online scare you about them dying right away. But I was surprised to find really fun happy fish active all the time and eating non stop .

You are lucky!

The general problem with this fish is, to my knowledge, they have a gut bacteria that stays alive with their eating. However, as most of them are wildcaught, during the transportation procedures and stuff, they are generally starved, and they don't eat anything for a quite long time, and once they have a chance to eat at the store, they are mostly kept in wayy to many numbers in small tanks so they barely can graze on anything, if the bacteria has already made it to that point. So with the days passing without any feeding, their gut bacteria ends up dying.

At that moment, it becomes a ticking bomb. No matter how much it eats from that point, it does not matter. They die. This is what I've read before, but cannot tell how true that is.

That's why it is generally recommended to get full belly ones and as fast as they make it into a store, because mostly their starvation keeps continuing and this guarantees that "ticking bomb" situation, sadly.

As nature does not offer algae wafers and their natural behavior is based on grazing nonstop, they sometimes hardly even accept any commercial foods or veggies. It is great that yours are accepting the algae wafers. That is a huge surplus in the long term. I am lucky that mine are accepting those too. But In my case, corycats taught them to eat.

 

[Rube_Goldfish]

On 3/13/2023 at 7:24 PM, Ohad said:

I

I got algae wafers from acop, and I feed them this on Mondays , Tuesday nothing but algae, Wednesday veggies, rest nothing but algae . Once there is less algae I will feed more for sure.

I was ready as everyone online scare you about them dying right away. But I was surprised to find really fun happy fish active all the time and eating non stop .

 

And yes this is my first "high tech" aquarium with some harder plants. Learning a lot 

I can't remember where or from whom I heard it - sorry! - but I remember someone saying that while they can be fragile for the feeding/mistreatment reasons @Lennie outlines, that they're actually fairly hardy in the right circumstances. It was phrased something like, hold your breath through the first month, but if they make it through that period in good health they're basically bulletproof. But I've only had mine for about six months, so I can only repeat what I've heard. Good luck with yours!