Otto

Cutlass

Cutlass

Large Fish
#1
May 16, 2003
217
0
0
43
Galloway, OH
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#1
I saw this one coming for the past couple days. Since I got more plants to absorb light and ferts, algae growth has been on the downslide. I've been supplementing their diet with boiled lettuce, which the Otos absolutely throw down. The lettuce is always gone in the morning, and 3 Otos have fat bellies. This one didnt, and I wasn't sure what the issue was. He wasn't eating the lettuce. I saw that he was having trouble swimming, so I netted him in the event that he died in a place that I couldn't see and I would have to tear the tank apart to find him. Only took a couple hours.
 

radamsk1

radamsk1

Large Fish
#3
Apr 23, 2005
153
0
16
45
Long Island, NY
#3
Consider yourself lucky that your ottos do eat the lettuce! I've always had some algae growth, minimally on plant leaves and maybe on the tank. As of recently it has turned into a dark green hair algae... the ottos have no care to eat that, nor any lettuce I leave at night time. My pleco doesn't touch it either. Thankfully I'm getting by with a minimal algae amount, although I want to get them some more food. Do you have any other ideas that you've tried? Sorry for the otto loss! :(
 

Cutlass

Cutlass

Large Fish
#4
May 16, 2003
217
0
0
43
Galloway, OH
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#4
radamsk1 said:
Consider yourself lucky that your ottos do eat the lettuce! I've always had some algae growth, minimally on plant leaves and maybe on the tank. As of recently it has turned into a dark green hair algae... the ottos have no care to eat that, nor any lettuce I leave at night time. My pleco doesn't touch it either. Thankfully I'm getting by with a minimal algae amount, although I want to get them some more food. Do you have any other ideas that you've tried? Sorry for the otto loss! :(
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I’ve tried other foods, and the lettuce seems to be one of their favorites. Mine didn’t touch zucchini, but they did eat cucumber. I haven’t tried spinach, but I hear they eat that too. Try going to the grocery store and picking up zucchini, cucumber, leaf lettuce, and spinach. The only way I found out what mine liked was by trying different things. Just make sure it’s boiled.

I feed them the lettuce by holding it against the glass with a magnetic algae scrubber. That way, they come across it as they skim the glass looking for algae. The cucumber can be weighted down by lead plant weights. I couldn’t find my weights, so I stuck it on a set of tweezers and dropped it in.
 

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