Otos

[Thyra]

I have had otos since I have had aquariums. I always thought they were meek little fish. Yesterday I noticed one that was "nipping" at a mollie. There are three mollies in the tank with either two or three otos and the oto doing the chasing is a very small oto and the mollies are quite large - in fact their mouths look big enough to swallow this oto, but they just swim away. I watched until the oto finally stopped and went back to eating, but just now I saw him doing it again. I also observed the same oto nibbling on a large flake. I have assumed they were sucker fish and not nibblers. Has anyone else noticed this type of behavior? OC??

 

[OrangeCones]

I have observed some that will 'suck' at the disolving pellets and flakes, but never another fish (I keep 4 different species of Otocinclus). Can you post a pic of the oto?

 

[Thyra]

I doubt that I can take a reasonable picture - I have tried fish pictures over the past three years and have none that were worth sharing except for possibly one of a bronze betta. The otos I have are just the common ones that I bought at Petsmart for $1 each - this one looks like all the other ones I have. I have not seen it attach or suck on the mollies - it looks more like it is charging and bumping into them and they just move away. I just thought it was unusual behavior for such a little seemingly non-threatening fish. Two of these use to be in the 2 1/2 g tank and later in a 5g with a betta with no problem, but I don't think it was this one because it seems smaller than the other two. The behavior isn't constant - its just that I happened to observe it two days in a row for probably 5 - 10 minutes at a time.

 

[OrangeCones]

Is this one also chasing the other other otos around, more following them? Or is the chasing only the mollies?

I've observed a male chasing around other fish every so often, but usually its to chase the others away from 'the girls' that he's considered 'his girls' HAHA!

 

[Thyra]

So far I have only observed him chasing the mollies, but this afternoon I have not observed any of that behavior at all - that tank is close to my computer and I am in this room a lot.