Are two of my three oto cats mating

**Shidohari** · 12-31-2012, 11:40 PM

I've noticed my oto cats active tonight. but two of them are chasing each other around the tank.

Today i added some water wisteria stems and barcoa on top of the wisteria and barcoa already in there because there weren't initially enough plants.

Right now it's the night time lights for the tank so i can still see for right now what's going on in the tank...but two of the three oto cats have been chasing themselves around the tank for the past ten to twenty minutes (possibly longer but as my 19 inch monitor for my computer blocks the normal view didn't notice it til just now)

Thoughts? I don't know what genders i got from jack's pets when i bought them.

Water temp currently 80.4 and did a large water change today on the tank due to ammo readings of .5. ended up being a twenty five percent with a full refill and then another 50percent after the refil as i didn't take out enough at the time.

so nitrites should be zero and ammo should be zero or very low right now.

**Shidohari** · 01-01-2013, 01:02 AM

As per my routine now i have turned all the LED lights off in all my tanks as of 830 pm. so we'll see what comes of this...

**madagascariensis** · 01-01-2013, 01:14 AM

Otos breed like cories(they take the "t" position) so to confirm that they are breeding you'd have to see that. Females are larger and rounder than males so you might want to take a close look at who is chasing whom. As far as I know though breeding otos in a tank is really uncommon so if they really are reproducing you sure are lucky

**MuckyFish** · 01-02-2013, 03:47 AM

My otos used to go nuts after water change for about a day but the surviving one of the three that I purchased doesn't seem to react the way he used to.

**Lady Hobbs** · 01-02-2013, 12:04 PM

The play and chase one another but will not mate in the tank.

**Shidohari** · 01-02-2013, 07:23 PM

good to know...Thanks lady hobbs.

**~firefly~** · 01-02-2013, 07:59 PM

Originally Posted by Lady Hobbs

The play and chase one another but will not mate in the tank.

I disagree, there is a thread on another forum where a guy has them breeding like crazy in a heavily planted set up. Lots and lots of photos of eggs and fry, right through to maturity. Very interesting (they're quite transparent when young).

Rare - yes, certainly, but not impossible. I think their sporadic breeding nature makes it unviable for the commercial trade (hence, most of our poor specimens being wild caught).