Re: Oto fry

[Chuck H <grendel at usit_net>]

Sharon has Otocinclus fry and writes:

>I've been able to find 4 of them (unfortunatly, I didn't notice them
>until 3 buckets had gone down the drain). I put a sponge on the filter
>intake but am not sure what else to do. I don't have any spare tanks
>with algae to move them to. I have an empty 5 gallon and my quarantine
>tank is filled right now. The tank the otos are in also contains clown
>loaches, rasboras, a spotted headstander, and the 3 otos.


I've had a few Oto fry.  Cute little buggers, aren't they?

Anyhoo, IME, the Otos don't seem to eat their own fry, but the other fishes 
might enjoy 'em as a snack.  You could suck the fry up with a baster and 
put them in a "nursery" inside the tank.  That would probably be the less 
stressful option for the fry as far as moving them goes.



>I'm assuming that I should just leave them be and let nature take its
>course, but the mother in me feels I should try to do something to
>protect them. Any advice?


I tried leaving mine alone since the Otos were the only fish in the 
tank.  Unfortunately, I was never able to grow any out this way.  I believe 
it was due to starvation because the tank was rather sterile as far as 
algae went.  If you have much algae, you will hopefully have better luck 
than I did.  Having green water is probably a good thing.  Also, I came 
across some info which reported that commercial folks continuously keep 
blanched spinach in the system with the fry -- I can't remember where I 
picked that up, though.  I had hoped to try it, but my magic Otos have not 
bred since about December or January when a CO2 spike nearly wasted them.

Could you share your tank's water parameters and such?  I hope to try 
raising some Oto fry again sometime and am interested in comparing your 
water/tank conditions to mine.  You can send them to me off list if you 
prefer, but I'm sure others would be interested.

Keep an eye out even if this batch of fry disappear.  My Otos were regular 
spawners once they started.  Each group of fry got larger each time, 
too.  The last was 14 fry from 15 eggs.

Best of luck.
--
Chuck Huffine
Knoxville, Tennessee