Otocinclus in a small tank?

[Komar]

I've got maybe 10 Otos in my 45 G tank. (I suspect there are only 8, as I can never count more than that many at a time.) I've lost about three Otos over the last several months, and they all appear to have died due to injury (there is only one that I can't tell for sure, as I found it quite some time after it died). One was injured when I got it home from the LFS, too. I have one Oto with a fresh headwound, so I've decided to move these little fellows into my 20 G tank that only has fish of about the same size. I think my Clown Loaches might be nipping at my Otos at the moment...

I'm thinking about tossing one Oto into my Betta tank, which is only 2.5 G. It's heated, planted, filtered, and will have an air pump installed if I do end up putting an Oto in there. Chances are, I'll use the one with the headwound to see how well the Betta reacts to it; I suspect this Oto won't recover, as none of my previous Otos with injuries have survived anyway. My other Betta gets along quite well with fish smaller than my Otos, though there is the occasional chase.

Any feedback is appreciated. I'm quite sure that this is a bit of a risky idea, but I'm hard up for something to clean algae in my Betta tank. Snails just aren't cutting it, and they end up eating my plants.

On a sidenote, Otos seem to have a bad reputation for not being hardy. I've had pretty good luck so far.

[William]

Well the aquarium are IMHO large enough to support a few ottos and if you provide them with a few hiding places, maybe a small root and don't think the betta will be a problem as long as you don't try to breed it.

A potential problem might however be that a small aquarium often have larger shifts in water values and the quality of the water more easily worsen which might cause problem will keeping a more sensitive fish which ottos can be.

/
William

[Komar]

Cool. I'll give it a try and see what happens...

[Komar]

I swapped some of my fish around, so six of my Otos are now in my 20G tank, and my two albino bristlenose plecos are in my 45G tank. My Oto with the headwound died, but I put another small Oto in my Betta tank a couple of days ago, instead.

The Oto seems to be doing okay in the 2.5 gallon planted tank. It has an air pump, submersible filter, and submersible heater. I might toss one more Oto into this aquarium next week, if all goes well.

I put a photo of my current set-up on the "Rate my Aquarium" page.

[Komar]

It's been about three weeks, and I added the second oto a long time ago. Everything is going well, though my nitrate level jumped quite a bit. I suspect I'll have to start changing larger volumes of water in this tank, since it is overstocked.

[Komar]

I took the otos out. They were doing okay, but there just wasn't enough algae for them to eat. I didn't want to start tossing algae wafers into this tiny tank. The elevated nitrate levels also bothered me a bit.

[Anonymous]

I swapped some of my fish around, so six of my Otos are now in my 20G tank, and my two albino bristlenose plecos are in my 45G tank. My Oto with the headwound died, but I put another small Oto in my Betta tank a couple of days ago, instead.

The Oto seems to be doing okay in the 2.5 gallon planted tank. It has an air pump, submersible filter, and submersible heater. I might toss one more Oto into this aquarium next week, if all goes well.

I put a photo of my current set-up on the "Rate my Aquarium" page. :oops: :o :o 8O