[Danold]

I've had 6 Otos for around a month now in my relatively new planted 40 breeder with nothing but a handful of neocaridina. I feed 0.5-1 slice of blanched cucumber every 2-3 days and about every other day I'll pop in part of a cube of frozen brine shrimp or blood worms for the shrimp. I've noticed that my otos get excited and tend to do a lot of foraging in the area where the frozen food tends to fall, but today I saw it for sure- otocinclus eating blood worms. They're clumsy with it and spit them out a few times before they finally get them down, but they're eating them. I'm not advocating to start feeding otos frozen foods and ditch the veggies- clearly their mouths are good at eating algae and not so great with meat. I just thought I'd share an observation that I hadn't been able to find previously in my research.

I think if I had any non-algae eaters in this tank they would get to the food long before the otos, so maybe that's why I'm seeing it in my tank? I took a video, but it's only letting me upload a single image from it.

 

[somewhatshocked]

Rule of thumb: If it can fit in their mouth? It can become a meal. While rare, I've even seen Otos eat young shrimp in my own tanks. Usually only happens for me in tanks where I've got just a handful of Otos. And usually only in tanks that don't have lots of plants and hiding spots.

All the Otos I've ever had have always loved the Repashy line of products. May want to check those out sometime. Some are more geared toward Otos than the others but I don't recall the specific varieties at the moment. (It'll be really clear to you when you look)

But about your shrimp... just make sure you're removing any food they don't finish within an hour or so. I like to feed every 2-3 days and alternate the foods or veggies I use. Frequent feeding of frozen high-protein foods can lead to problems, so I limit that kind of thing as a rare shrimp treat. Fun to watch them fight over bloodworm - especially Amanos.

 

[JCnyc]

My ottos will clean up flake food from the bottom of the tank and have tried some frozen bloodworms too. Now if only they’d do a better clean up of algae on my slow-growers!

 

[Danold]

But about your shrimp... just make sure you're removing any food they don't finish within an hour or so. I like to feed every 2-3 days and alternate the foods or veggies I use. Frequent feeding of frozen high-protein foods can lead to problems, so I limit that kind of thing as a rare shrimp treat. Fun to watch them fight over bloodworm - especially Amanos.

Interesting points!

At the moment, the tank is really under stocked and getting to be heavily planted. The nitrates are actually falling without water changes, so while I wait for a chance to get more fish I let the excess food rot (not feeding much at all though). Builds up the ammonia and nitrite detoxifying bacteria in anticipation of increasing bio-load and keeps my nitrate from completely crashing. Once I'm fully stocked I'm not planning on continuing this practice.

 

[Phil Edwards]

Fish are Opportunivores and it's not unexpected that Ottos will come across small invertebrates in their natural environment. I'd be careful about feeing worms too often, 1-2x/week should be enough for the fish and shrimp, to avoid GI issues though.

 

[jake21]

ottos like meat. The fact that they will also eat green stuff is a bonous.