[APD] shedding light on Ottos

[Sandra Derrick <mygenericemailname at yahoo_com>]

In my many years working in LFSs I have NEVER seen ottos shipped in numbers less than 50 to a bag. The poor fish would generally be covered w/ hemorrhages  and a high number would be dead within days. In order to prevent these deaths I would try and order them in smaller numbers however the percentage would remain the same... I just would loose 4 out of 10 instead of 20 out of 50, when I sold them I put them no more than 2 to a medium sized bag. Of course I could do nothing regarding how they were shipped to the companies I bought them from (and I tried several different ones w/ the same results) and naturally they would be shipped in even higher concentrations to the wholesaler. 

I have to believe that these little guys are hyper sensitive to the stress of shipping regarding damaged inflicted by one another and high concentrations of ammonia, and perhaps it is worsened by lack of food during their time in transit from the collection to the LFS. However I have found that if they have been at a LFS (and kept in their plant tanks, w/ driftwood) for a week they did not have the high turnover rate that most folks associate w/ them (because some would die at the store leaving only the strong ones) and even my beginning plant tank folks had little problems w/ them. I myself have several and my males chace my very gravid female around from time to time- I fully expect them to spawn one day when I have done a large waterchange... however I will not be holding my breath for that to happen LOL.

Sandi

 
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