# Acclimating Otto's



## _Green_ (Dec 30, 2008)

Hi all,

I have purchased upwards of 20 of these wonderful little fish over the past few months, and have had a horrible time keeping them alive. I know they can't and(or) wont' eat all types of algae so I place an algae wafer if the tank 2-3 times a week for them, so they're not starving. At this time I only have 2 left. I had 3 until just the other night when I quickly netted and bagged one of them to place into my 10g tank. I left it in the bag on top of the water for 45minutes, then added a bit of tank water to the bag and left it for another 30 minutes before releasing the lil guy. I thought that would be fine, added a small chunk of wafer for it and sadly the next afternoon when I arrived home from work it was dead.

So what am I doing wrong? What do you do that I'm not doing when it comes to acclimating ottos?

Thanks
Ross


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## Plaid (Nov 10, 2008)

I have, luckily, been sucessful with otocinclus cats, despite my failures involving guppies. I'm past it now, but I just CANNOT keep guppies. 

Back to your question:
Where are you getting the fish? What is their water like?
What is YOUR water like?
Temperature?
Well Water, or City Water?
How big is your tank, do you have a light on it?
What kind of light?
Do you NEED ottos? They're so efficient, they'll eat all the algae and then starve. Mine refuse to eat algae wafers.
Plants?
Other inhabitants?
Age of tank?
What's in your filter?
Have you ever had diseases in your tank, and not run carbon after medicating?

I am a fan of the otocinclus catfish. It's very industrius.


We just need a little more before we can help you.

-Wes


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## WiyRay (Jan 11, 2009)

I used to do that too with the first few ottos I had because I googled it somewhere. 

Well long story short, same situation as you. 

The next time after that, I just tossed them into the tank as soon as I got them home and they've been living happily for a few months now until 1 unfortunate ick infested fish took out nearly my entire tank. But thats besides the point.


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## Pleconomous (Mar 7, 2008)

45 + 30 min to acclimitize in a bag is way too long. Stress, fowling of the water, decreasing oxygen concentrations in the bag, etc is probably why you've lost so many ottos lately. You would be much better off putting the Otto in a bucket, and slowly adding water to the bucket. Do this for 20 minutes to a half hour tops and then add the fish to your tank. 

I've found that Otto's in general don't travel well from the fish store to your tank from the stress, but to add an additional hour or more acclimating is just way too stressful on the fish. Try acclimating a different way (e.g. the bucket and drip acclimation, or what I do is just pour small amounts of water into the bucket over a 20 minute period, or simply dump them in the tank, although I wouldn't reccomend this method). This should hopefully give you a better survival rate with the little guys.


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## _Green_ (Dec 30, 2008)

Plaid said:


> I have, luckily, been sucessful with otocinclus cats, despite my failures involving guppies. I'm past it now, but I just CANNOT keep guppies.
> 
> Back to your question:
> Where are you getting the fish? What is their water like?


in the case of the ottos Big Al's Whitby, PetSmart Whitby, Big Al's Newmarket, Big Al's Vaughn



Plaid said:


> What is YOUR water like?


medium-hard



Plaid said:


> Temperature?


75-78F



Plaid said:


> Well Water, or City Water?


That has been different over the life of the tank, but for the most part it's been RO water mixed with spring water from a spring on Lakeridge road, near ski lakeridge



Plaid said:


> How big is your tank, do you have a light on it?


55gallon tank, 4+ WPG



Plaid said:


> What kind of light?


Coralife PCF 4x 65w



Plaid said:


> Do you NEED ottos? They're so efficient, they'll eat all the algae and then starve. Mine refuse to eat algae wafers.
> Plants?


Yes I believe I do need them, algae is a problem for me and besides that I really like these little characters. The fish that survive past the first few days seem to be fine.



Plaid said:


> Other inhabitants?


6 lemmon tetra
6 H rasboras
2 neon
4 cory cats
1 zipper loach
4 albino bn plecos
2 SAEs
2 kuhli loaches
2 dwarf gouramis
1 female guppy
5 1"-1.5" kribs (these are new, I have not added nor lost any ootos since these were added this past sunday)

Now I'm sure someone is going to say that's too many fish, but I can assure you it's fine, with the exception of ottos and wlamart neons, I can count on one hand the number of fish I've lost on one hand.

Age of tank?[/QUOTE]

8-9 months

What's in your filter?[/QUOTE]

eheim 2215



Plaid said:


> Have you ever had diseases in your tank, and not run carbon after medicating?


ick, once on one of the gourami's showed up 3 days after I added that fish, no problems before or since then.



Plaid said:


> I am a fan of the otocinclus catfish. It's very industrius.
> 
> We just need a little more before we can help you.
> 
> -Wes


I hope that helps you help me better, thanks


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## Plaid (Nov 10, 2008)

Sorry about the wait, I've been mighty sick these last few days.

Everything you're doing looks great, except for the extra-long bag-in-tank period. The answer to that problem is obvious.

Your water looks great for otocinclus, and I know for a fact that both the Big Al's and PetSmart you mentioned are on standard city water. If you continue to have problems, then consider just using Whitby Standard water.

It seems like you're just having bad luck with the catfdish, as all of your stats look good.

Good luck with future purchases,
-Wes


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

They're not in the bag too long - size of the fish, and number if a bag just doesn't equate for the otos. Shipping them takes probably 100 times as long from the LFS to home, and they're in a bag with probably 100 or more other otos.

Otos are notoriously bad shippers. Never ever buy them from a new shipment. If you can, buy them about 2 weeks after they arrive. By that time, any that will die from shipping stress will have died and healthy ones will survive. 

Feeding shouldn't be an issue. I have 6 otos in a tank that only gets fed for carnivorous plecs, and it sounds like you feed better than I do (at least for the otos). I never feed the otos anything, yet they continue to spawn - so they're probably healthy.

The bucket method of acclimation works well - just use airline tubing to siphon water in slowly as not to shift parameters too quickly and you should be fine - this is the case for anything aquatic (even plants can need an acclimation). The more sensitive, the slower you should go.

On the next batch, wait out the shipment till it's nearing the last few otos. Then buy a group of 6+, and they should be hardy survivors.


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## _Green_ (Dec 30, 2008)

Plaid said:


> Sorry about the wait, I've been mighty sick these last few days.
> 
> Everything you're doing looks great, except for the extra-long bag-in-tank period. The answer to that problem is obvious.
> 
> ...





ameekplec. said:


> They're not in the bag too long - size of the fish, and number if a bag just doesn't equate for the otos. Shipping them takes probably 100 times as long from the LFS to home, and they're in a bag with probably 100 or more other otos.
> 
> Otos are notoriously bad shippers. Never ever buy them from a new shipment. If you can, buy them about 2 weeks after they arrive. By that time, any that will die from shipping stress will have died and healthy ones will survive.
> 
> ...


thanks for the advice guys/gals I plan to use the bucket method in the future. ameekplec, I have algae issues so yeah they have planty to eat, I add the wafers just to be on the safe side as I read they wont or can`t eat all types of algae.

Time in the bag from the store to home is always 45 minutes or more because of where I live. I do put the bags in a cooler to try and keep the temp stable and in the hope that the darkness will calm the fish no matter what type of fish I`m buying on any given day.

thanks again
Ross


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

LFS to house routine sounds excellent. I hardly ever remember the cooler. I usually just give them my jacket, since I', such a gentleman 

Give the two week thing a go. Should solve your oto kick.


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## kweenshaker (Mar 11, 2006)

ameekplec. said:


> Otos are notoriously bad shippers. Never ever buy them from a new shipment. If you can, buy them about 2 weeks after they arrive. By that time, any that will die from shipping stress will have died and healthy ones will survive.
> 
> On the next batch, wait out the shipment till it's nearing the last few otos. Then buy a group of 6+, and they should be hardy survivors.


That makes so much sense! I'd always had bad luck with Otos as well, but one day about a year ago, I was in walmart and they were selling otos for $99 each....they only had 5 left so I bought them all and here I am a year later with all 5! It surprised me, being walmart and everything, but your theory makes things much more clear


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

I got a otocinclus from Petsmart a month ago to this date. So far my little guy has survived very well. Perhaps I just had luck or did the right proceedures.

I bought mine at Petsmart (Hwy 7 & High Tech Rd). I went with a cooler bag with ice in it to keep the temp stable as it was about a 20ish C temp day. The CSR at Petsmart netted the oto cat and filled up the small bag they use for crickets. Costed me $3.99 + tax. I put the fish in my cooler right away after purchase. I didn't make it home till about 1.5hrs as I got a call for errands along the way home. 

When I got home I immediately floated the bag for 15mins with a air stone on control valve set to let air out slowly with a air bleed tube so i did not blow the bag up. Then 1/4 amount of fishtank water every 15mins till 100%. Then released into my fuzzy tank. 

I have read online that if the oto cat survives the 2 weeks you're looking ok but if it survives the first month you're good on the oto cat and the oto cat is very likely to survive long term. So far my little oto cat has been working hard and ignored my first sinking catfish pellet (I think algae wafer but I don't have the packaging in front of me. It was a TopFin house brand of Petsmart) but I put that algae pellet too far away the first time and it fuzzed up after about 3 days. I did not see the little oto cat touching it at all at all hour so fthe day. 

I even draped a cloth over the tank to make it all dark to see if the pellet would be touched. Nope, didn't touch it at first and ran around sucking algae off the walls. A week later I tried that again but this time I dropped the pellet about 1 inch away from the oto cat then left the tank with the lights off and draped the tank. Guess what? A day later when I lifted the draped cloth guess who was munching on the pellet?  

Yup... so now that my oto cat has had some of the sinking pellet and knowing it is food I thought about moving the pellet in the tank to see if the oto cat would register that as food in another location which I put in the front of the tank so I can see the little guy munching then hidden in the back of the tank. Well the little guy came around later to the front after I draped the tank and is munching the pellet now.    

I do believe it was the ice packs (buffered with a couple J-cloth towels so the water is touching the ice packs directly) that stablized the temp for that travel delay and also possible that the stock was good at that Petsmart location. Heads up, they get thier fish stock on Friday there.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

kweenshaker said:


> That makes so much sense! I'd always had bad luck with Otos as well, but one day about a year ago, I was in walmart and they were selling otos for $99 each....they only had 5 left so I bought them all and here I am a year later with all 5! It surprised me, being walmart and everything, but your theory makes things much more clear


You happen to remember which Wallys that was at? Petsmart is $3.99 + tax >_<;; A LFS here (Luckys) is $2.99 tax included. I'd -love- for cheaper oto cats. They are SO adorable you can't help saying 'sucky sucky' to them when they're on the glass grazing. ^__^;;


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