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Re: otocinclus fry



> From: Cathy Drzyzgula <milnor at netcom_com>
> 
>    Through no plan of mine my otto cats spawned on Friday and now the
> fry are free-swimming (free-clinging?).  I moved the eggs to a newe 10
> gal tank (rainbows in original tank) and have added a few plants
> collected from various tanks.  I smushed 1/2 and algae wafer on the
> (bare) bottom of the tank too.  Any suggestions for me?  How often do
> I change water in the tank?  All I've read about fry says to feed
> small amounts several times a day, but since the adults seem to feed
> continuously I thought a small steady amount of food available made
> more sense--do you agree? Any ways to change the water and make sure
> no fry get sucked up, or do I just check after siphoning and do it
> gently?  I've never raised any fry before so any suggestions greatly
> appreciated.

I've not raised this type of fry before but let me share some experiences
with Betta and Gourami fry. A danger of keeping fry in a small tank
and trying to feed large amounts of food is that the water can go
poisonous quite quickly. For carniverous fish with large fry like
Bettas and Gouramis, I started feeding live brine shrimp almost
immediately. I NEVER used the terrible egg paste formula sold in pet
shops. Otos are not carniverous so you want lots of soft green algaes.
I think the live algaes are much preferable to dead ones in tablets or
flakes so why not put your tank where it can get bright light esp
sunlight (but not overheat). I feel that fry always do lots better with
lots of floating plants such as water sprite or salvinia. With green
algae, there is usually lots of infusoria too (but your baby cats will
eat the soft green algae I think)

When changing the water, I used airline tubing as a siphon. It's slow
but you can avoid sucking up fry this way. I always added water out
of one of my other tanks. Since I was feeding nauplii several times a
day, I changed water daily or every second day. This would not be necessary
in an algae/plant only tank. You could do it weekly just to replenish
nutrients.

How did you induce the otos to breed? What did they choose to put their
eggs in? I have a large tank with only otos, 1 farly, 2 corys and many
baby platys. Do you think I could induce the otos to breed? That would
be great!

 - Steve