Otos

[rodcuda]

So I finally found the right deal on some Otos. They had been at the store for 2 weeks and were quite healthy. Been waiting for the right ones. I put 5 in my 20L CRS/CBS tank and 5 in a 29 community tank. I have read quite a bit on them and so far they seem to be doing fine. But I was wondering what others have found to be a tolerable nitrate level for them. My shrimp tank is alway near 0 of course but the community tank will always have some. Anyone have experience on what level they can live in and not be affected?

Also any other Oto advice for me or others interested would be great.

And I put this in the section on purpose, since I mainly keep shrimp.

[james0816]

Technically....you could go as high as 40 but I would not recommend exceeding 20. I have a couple of high tech tanks where I push the limits with my wee ones. They are heavily planted and all do just fine in there.

[zzrguy]

You could throw a few more Otos in those tanks I started with 10 and im down to 8 now in my 29gal. I think my loache harasses them so they hang out by the top of the tank swing down at night to feed and clean. They do a nice job of it.

[rodcuda]

I want to keep the bioload down, especially in the shrimp tank. But will add more after I see how they do.

[Koro-chan]

I have 10 otos in my 20 gal planted CRS tank along with 4 nerite snails and tag along snails (team algae killers). My Nitrates are near 0 ppm. I do 2 small water changes per week and have a pretty buff filtration setup based off of Liam's model but on steroids.

http://aquarliam.com/category/howto/

Everyone gets along just dandy.

[Kannachan13]

My otos survived being in a 29g with over 50 2in baby angels.... It went over a month without getting a water change (don't ask) and they're still doing great. But I also had four die on me within a month of getting them for no reason. They'd been eating well and they were just with timid live bearers. No idea why.

[Bananariot]

I don't know what it is, but ottos always tend to have an initial die off within the first week and then the survivors afterwards are tanks.

[rodcuda]

They are almost always collected from the wild which accounts for the early losses. That is why I grabbed these when I found out they had been there for 2 weeks or more.

[PuddlesAqua]

I've always had success with mine, even the ones from Petsmart. I put them in well established tanks. Maybe I got lucky.

[rodcuda]

Mine went into established tanks too. I wanted to make sure they were mature before I added them. And I found these at Petsmart also. Was surprised they had them. This particular store has nicely cared for tanks and the employees in the fish area are actually a little knowledgeable.