otto behavior

[mpg]

about a month ago i went to buy 4 ottos from my LFS. he gave me 6 for the price of four. i thought "okay since they have a reputation for giving up after a couple days..."

a month later i still have a school of 6 ottos in a 10 gallon tank! they seem to be very happy together, and follow each other around. i highly recommend a school of them if you have a larger tank.

i'm still trying to figure out when they are hungry. with a school, they ate all the brown algea in a manner of hours. sometimes they swim around a lot. are they looking for food? or are they just enjoying the tank? at first i thought they were happier when they were swimming but i notice when i give them an algea disk or a blanched vegetable, they chill out and hang around the food, hanging on with their little fins.

so is a happy otto an active otto? or a chilled out otto?

 

[Leopardess]

Both! At times they will swim spastically, and at others, they will just veg out for hours on end.


I actually only asked for six, and he gave me nine. Well, I still have all nine....


They'll eat when they're hungry...but don't worry too much if they don't eat some of their algae...the tank is full of lovely snacks for them

 

[Skullburger]

My oto never gets to eat his algae wafers because the Corys and the Rummy Nose Tetras in my tank liove them too much- as soon as I put them in there they are all fighting for a bite and it looks like a scene from the African savanna of lions and jackals around a carcass- sometimes one of the tetras will try to pick the wafer up and carry it away- which is funny beause they are much too big for the little fishes to carry more than a millimeter or so.

 

[Element101]

man, 6 ottos in a ten gallon?? awesome! 2 wiped mine clean of algae in a couple of days. i cant even imagine how fast 6 could clean a ten gallon.

 

[SoulFish]

with that many in such a small tank i would feed them extra foods like algae wafers, thats too many for a 10gal and there wont be enough algae for them, unless theres something like direct sunlight and excess of nutrients

 

[mpg]

i do feed them pretty well. and that's part of the fun. watch six mild mannered ottos arguing over a single algea wafer. my white clouds have also developed a taste for algea wafers. i think they just want to be part of the party. so it really becomes quite a feeding frenzy. it still takes them a day and a half to eat a whole tablet.

 

[HZSK]

Aw, ottos are so cute That's why I decided to get them for my 29G but for now it's just Uno and he's stuck where he is till the 29G cycles--poor Uno.