Post by bardus71 on May 25, 2011 13:14:46 GMT 11
This is an owners account of keeping otos:
Ottos can be unbelievably tough, in fact i cannot believe some of the things my ottos have been through and seemingly unbothered.
However, the first 2 months spells the beginning of a long relationship or the end of a short one.
Ottos are generally not captive bred, a majority of those in the hobby are wild caught, after spending horrific amounts of time in transit they finally arrive at your LFS, by this point they are hanging on by a thread of life, as with many corys which are in the same boat.
Luckily they are surprisingly tough buggers when they are healthy, so getting them through the first 2 months is the key, and the key to that is a well established tank, 2 months would be a minimum, tank must be planted, and green and brown algaes on wood and glass are required immediate diet and key to long term success.
When you get them they are already stressed and having a immediate available foods that they know is imperitive as it can take several months for them to take to aquarium fare, like algae wafers, pellets or flake.
Every time I buy ottos I expect a 50% survival rate, the first ottos I bought never lasted the 2 months, after that i managed to get 30% survival and as time went on and i got more familiar with them I'm managing closer to 95% survival of newly bought ottos.
I actually don't buy ottos anymore, since i have a group of 8 that i have had for 2 years or more now, and they have been in and out of no less than 5-6 separate tanks from 40L to 700L. Several of them have been rescued from the cats mouth (because they got out of the tank) and I think only there hard shell saved them, (and me wondering what the heck the cat is trying to get near the fish tank).
They seem somewhat unbothered by water parameters as long as nitrates are kept less than 20ppm (preferably 10ppm or less) PH between 6 and 8. Myn have all lived in fairly hard water at around 7.2-7.8.
In my mind these fantastic little workhorses are delicate when new to your tank but once settled are hardy and basically maintainence free do there own thing fish.
I have found they will school with Pygmy corys, It would appear to mimic the appearance of certain corys in order to avoid predation as most corys let off toxic poisons to predators so they avoid them, since ottos have similar appearance and often school with corys they can piggyback off this little trick up corys sleaves. When i kept them together in a 650L display with a group of 15 pygmys it become difficult to tell what was what from as close as a metre.
They are great little fish, the otto on the import list i believe is otto flexilis, this is what we are supposed to get in Australia, but I have never seen a flexilis in Australia, yet all ottos are imported under this name as it's the only allowable.
I believe there is at least 5 different ottos here in Aus, some common, some quite rare.
Reproduced with permission from Juls @ Aquariumlife Australia
Ottos can be unbelievably tough, in fact i cannot believe some of the things my ottos have been through and seemingly unbothered.
However, the first 2 months spells the beginning of a long relationship or the end of a short one.
Ottos are generally not captive bred, a majority of those in the hobby are wild caught, after spending horrific amounts of time in transit they finally arrive at your LFS, by this point they are hanging on by a thread of life, as with many corys which are in the same boat.
Luckily they are surprisingly tough buggers when they are healthy, so getting them through the first 2 months is the key, and the key to that is a well established tank, 2 months would be a minimum, tank must be planted, and green and brown algaes on wood and glass are required immediate diet and key to long term success.
When you get them they are already stressed and having a immediate available foods that they know is imperitive as it can take several months for them to take to aquarium fare, like algae wafers, pellets or flake.
Every time I buy ottos I expect a 50% survival rate, the first ottos I bought never lasted the 2 months, after that i managed to get 30% survival and as time went on and i got more familiar with them I'm managing closer to 95% survival of newly bought ottos.
I actually don't buy ottos anymore, since i have a group of 8 that i have had for 2 years or more now, and they have been in and out of no less than 5-6 separate tanks from 40L to 700L. Several of them have been rescued from the cats mouth (because they got out of the tank) and I think only there hard shell saved them, (and me wondering what the heck the cat is trying to get near the fish tank).
They seem somewhat unbothered by water parameters as long as nitrates are kept less than 20ppm (preferably 10ppm or less) PH between 6 and 8. Myn have all lived in fairly hard water at around 7.2-7.8.
In my mind these fantastic little workhorses are delicate when new to your tank but once settled are hardy and basically maintainence free do there own thing fish.
I have found they will school with Pygmy corys, It would appear to mimic the appearance of certain corys in order to avoid predation as most corys let off toxic poisons to predators so they avoid them, since ottos have similar appearance and often school with corys they can piggyback off this little trick up corys sleaves. When i kept them together in a 650L display with a group of 15 pygmys it become difficult to tell what was what from as close as a metre.
They are great little fish, the otto on the import list i believe is otto flexilis, this is what we are supposed to get in Australia, but I have never seen a flexilis in Australia, yet all ottos are imported under this name as it's the only allowable.
I believe there is at least 5 different ottos here in Aus, some common, some quite rare.
Reproduced with permission from Juls @ Aquariumlife Australia