# Oto cat has a white patch on body



## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

I just noticed today that one of my oto cats in my 10 gallon planted tank has a white patch on his body behind his dorsal fin. I've watched him and he's been eating normally and nothing seems out of the ordinary. Does anyone know why this is happening? I have 3 oto cats in the tank and the 2 don't have this problem. 

The other inhabitants of my tank are a bunch of cherry shrimp and about 12 crystal reds. I feed them every day with 1 algae wafer, 25%-30% water changes weekly - water is always dechlorinated with prime, weekly dose of flourish. Ammonia is 0, Nitrates are 25 ppm, and nitrites are 0.25 ppm. Water temp is set at 75F. 

The only thing that changed in my tank, was the addition of some riccia and 2 neon rainbow fry that stowed away on it. Other than that, everythings been the same, i just noticed this white patch about 3 days ago. Your help will be much appreciated. Thanks.


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

I've gotten a better look at the oto cat, its not actually a white patch but a section of his body is almost becoming transparent. Any ideas as to what is causing this?


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

pictures would be needed.

Also, how long has the tank been running for?


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

jon021 said:


> The other inhabitants of my tank are a bunch of cherry shrimp and about 12 crystal reds. I feed them every day with 1 algae wafer, 25%-30% water changes weekly - water is always dechlorinated with prime, weekly dose of flourish. *Ammonia is 0, Nitrates are 25 ppm, and nitrites are 0.25 ppm*. Water temp is set at 75F.


Your shrimp may die with measureable nitrites. Put some prime in there.


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## Cory (May 2, 2008)

Could be fungus or columnaris.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

jon021 said:


> I've gotten a better look at the oto cat, its not actually a white patch but a section of his body is almost becoming transparent. Any ideas as to what is causing this?


Parts of Otos are transparent


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

ameekplec. said:


> Your shrimp may die with measureable nitrites. Put some prime in there.


The tests were done before the water change today, so the nitrites should be better now. I added just a bit extra prime just incase - Thanks.


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

Hitch said:


> pictures would be needed.
> 
> Also, how long has the tank been running for?


I'll try to get pictures, but they're constantly moving so it won't be easy. The tank has been running for.. 6 months now? The otos have been in there for about 3.


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

ameekplec. said:


> Parts of Otos are transparent


The transparent patch is on the left side of his body starting near the dorsal fin. It seems that its growing a bit - is that natural? Other than that patch, the oto seems to be healthy in every other way.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

a little concerned about the nitrite amount in the water....if the tank has been running for that long and there werent a dramatic increase in stock, I dont understand why there are any nitrites...

in an established tank, ammonia and nitrite should both be 0, anything higher is dangerous.


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

Hitch said:


> a little concerned about the nitrite amount in the water....if the tank has been running for that long and there werent a dramatic increase in stock, I dont understand why there are any nitrites...
> 
> in an established tank, ammonia and nitrite should both be 0, anything higher is dangerous.


The nitrite test was actually done with a test strip unfortunately - i have the test kits, but my dad used up all of the nitrite tests. So the reading on the test strip only states from 0-.25. I'd assumme that my nitrites should be close to 0, the tank is heavily planted and i haven't lost a single shrimp. From what i know, the crystal reds are pretty sensitive to water quality and they're all healthy and even breeding.


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

I managed to get a picture of the oto with the transparent patch, hope someone can figure out whats wrong with him. 

It's a bit off topic, but can anyone identify the type of algae thats on the glass? i have a 13 w cfl on the tank for 10 hours a day - is that whats causing the algae? I notice its not a type of algae that the otos will touch, i've scrapped it off a couple times but it always regrows. I thought it was hair algae so i tried treating with excel but that didn't work either.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

jon021 said:


> I managed to get a picture of the oto with the transparent patch, hope someone can figure out whats wrong with him.
> 
> It's a bit off topic, but can anyone identify the type of algae thats on the glass? i have a 13 w cfl on the tank for 10 hours a day - is that whats causing the algae? I notice its not a type of algae that the otos will touch, i've scrapped it off a couple times but it always regrows. I thought it was hair algae so i tried treating with excel but that didn't work either.


I have the same on my glass walls as well. I think it is white hair algae. Tho mine is very short hair right now as it started showing up as my lights are on 10hrs as well. I think I got 13W 6500k putting out ~600lm/ea I already knocked back a few hours on the light but may be using 2x9W whatever lights I have around.

It appears my 2 otocats nibble at it. It's soft enough to see when I had it in my 5.5gal tank that I saw them rubbing it off while munching on it. I guess your otocat does not like it or not used to it.


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

jon021 said:


> I managed to get a picture of the oto with the transparent patch, hope someone can figure out whats wrong with him.


It looks like another oto could _possibly_ be eating the slime coat away on this oto cat. Do you add small amounts of veggies for the otos like a slice of zucchini or cucumber, some peas without skins, or maybe a bean or two, etc.?



jon021 said:


> It's a bit off topic, but can anyone identify the type of algae thats on the glass? i have a 13 w cfl on the tank for 10 hours a day - is that whats causing the algae? I notice its not a type of algae that the otos will touch, i've scrapped it off a couple times but it always regrows. I thought it was hair algae so i tried treating with excel but that didn't work either.


That algae is Green Dust Algae (GDA) and it is very common. I scrape it off and let the smaller fish have a great time eating it as it floats in the water.
http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
http://www.guitarfish.org/algae#bga

What type of filtration are you using on this aquarium? Nice looking aquarium by the way.


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

Calmer said:


> It looks like another oto could _possibly_ be eating the slime coat away on this oto cat. Do you add small amounts of veggies for the otos like a slice of zucchini or cucumber, some peas without skins, or maybe a bean or two, etc.?
> 
> That algae is Green Dust Algae (GDA) and it is very common. I scrape it off and let the smaller fish have a great time eating it as it floats in the water.
> http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/algae.htm
> ...


I haven't been feeding them any veggies lately, they've just been feeding on algae wafers. I used to give them cucumbers once a week, i'll try to start doing that again.

Thanks for identifying the algae for me, i guess i'll just scrape it off during the water changes and let the shrimp feed on it. The tank is actually one of those jebo kits. the filtration is pretty simple, the pump sucks the water up into the hood, theres 2 sponges that i put in - one coarse and one finer, and then a layer of ceramic rings to culture bacteria and then it streams back into the tank.


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## jon021 (May 19, 2009)

AquaNeko said:


> I have the same on my glass walls as well. I think it is white hair algae. Tho mine is very short hair right now as it started showing up as my lights are on 10hrs as well. I think I got 13W 6500k putting out ~600lm/ea I already knocked back a few hours on the light but may be using 2x9W whatever lights I have around.
> 
> It appears my 2 otocats nibble at it. It's soft enough to see when I had it in my 5.5gal tank that I saw them rubbing it off while munching on it. I guess your otocat does not like it or not used to it.


Did you notice a difference in algae growth when you cut back on the photosynthesis period? and how many hours did you reduce it to?


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

jon021 said:


> Did you notice a difference in algae growth when you cut back on the photosynthesis period? and how many hours did you reduce it to?


I reduced my lighting to 5hrs as I do have some indirect outside light coming in. I'll have to let to know how it is after 1-2 weeks. I changed the timer cycle like last Sat. but before then It was like 10-16hrs on as I turned it on but got busy with something else and work so the tanks had something like 12-14hrs a day on average before as I wanted to check on the tank and such so I turned my light on. After about 2 weeks the fuzz showed up. It was the same fuzz in my 5.5gal tank but my otocat cleaned that up.


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## trehugstu (Nov 11, 2009)

I accept with information:The extended cut of Dreamscape is due to go off to US distributors in early September.


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