# Hardiest Otocinclus species?



## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Was checking out the web and wikipedia while searchin Panda Corys. I ran into the otocinclus page on wiki and am wondering which species of otocinclus is the hardiest? I read on the wiki page that there are other species more hardy but could not really find out thier species name, temp range (and survivability range, ie. lowest temp), and water perimeters.

Any help would be appreciated.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Availability will limit you on this. Oto affinis is the most commonly available species. Others might come in misidentified, but you'll be hard pressed to find other species for sale as marked. 

The only other Oto I've seen this year is a few zebra otos. They were $15 each at BAs in the spring.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Agreed, I don't think I have ever even seen another type of otto in Toronto. I heard there were those zebra otto's, but never saw any.

Despite commonly held opinions regarding how hard it is to acclimate otto's, I've never lost one. So in my opinion, they are fairly hardy


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

yep, failry hardy. You just have to buy the right ones. 

Best is to wait 2 weeks after they come into the store - they're bad shippers, so that 2 weeks should leave only the hardiest ones.

I haven't seen Zebra Otos since. I'd like to ask Harold to bring in a few for me


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

Agreed, they are fairly hardy but is that in planted aquariums only? It may have to do with plants being faster at cleaning up ammonia spikes in the water than bacteria. It could also be the increased stress of being in the open water with no where to hide. Has anyone had or is having good luck with ottos in non planted aquariums?


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

I had 7 of them in a 15g with a small clump of java ferns (nothing substantial) for about 6 months - and they spawned repeatedly in there.


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## Calmer (Mar 9, 2008)

Can't get more happier than that lol
Did you get any fry out of that?


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## bae (May 11, 2007)

AFAIK, almost all otocinclus spp in stores are wild caught. They've been under weeks of stress and are seldom fed the algae diet they should be, so they tend to arrive in poor condition and starving. It makes sense to let the store feed and care for them and take the inevitable losses for the first couple of weeks. Because the wild caught ones are so cheap, nobody is captive breeding them on a commercial scale.

Once acclimated, and properly fed, they are quite hardy, IME. They do a very good job cleaning algae from plant leaves as well as glass.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Calmer said:


> Can't get more happier than that lol
> Did you get any fry out of that?


I saw a few wrigglers here an dthere, but none survived long. Although I didn't do much to facilitate their survival.


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## clock906 (Nov 22, 2007)

I brought some otocinclus from Petsmart and BigAls before, and they seem to be of different species/variation.

There are some subtle difference in their skin and pattern between the ones I got from bigals and the one I got from petsmart. Neither of them were the zebra oto.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

ameekplec. said:


> Availability will limit you on this. Oto affinis is the most commonly available species. Others might come in misidentified, but you'll be hard pressed to find other species for sale as marked.
> 
> The only other Oto I've seen this year is a few zebra otos. They were $15 each at BAs in the spring.


Ekkkk  too rich for my blood >.<;; Tho I saw an image of the zebra oto's online. Looking very much like subdued urban camo. I like! Tho gah on that price. Need to find some local breeders.



> Agreed, I don't think I have ever even seen another type of otto in Toronto. I heard there were those zebra otto's, but never saw any.
> 
> Despite commonly held opinions regarding how hard it is to acclimate otto's, I've never lost one. So in my opinion, they are fairly hardy


I've had my otocats since umm May/09 I think so that's about 4months now. Both are still alive. I guess the saying holds true if the otocats last 2 weeks they'll likely survive. If they last a month they'll survive unless something goes bad in the tank. Read some stuff on Robyn's fish page and else where on that before.



> Agreed, they are fairly hardy but is that in planted aquariums only? It may have to do with plants being faster at cleaning up ammonia spikes in the water than bacteria. It could also be the increased stress of being in the open water with no where to hide. Has anyone had or is having good luck with ottos in non planted aquariums?


Well my otocats are about 4 months old about now. I'll have to check my logs to see when I got them but I think in May/09 as back around Apr. I had a pH disaster (my fault) which wiped out and slowly wiped out my Rosy Red Minnows. Learning mistake.  Well depends how you look at this. If you wanted to get heavy on it being real plants then it is not a planted tank. I used 2 plastic plants in gravel. One which was a small thin spikey one and the other was more a small broad leaf one. I've seen the otocats rub up against the thin spikey one cleaning the thim film off it but I still drop algae flakes down there which the zebra danios pick at and I see from time to time an otocat sucking on it.



> clock906 I brought some otocinclus from Petsmart and BigAls before, and they seem to be of different species/variation.
> 
> There are some subtle difference in their skin and pattern between the ones I got from bigals and the one I got from petsmart. Neither of them were the zebra oto.


I've been to both stores. My original otocat was from Petsmart. It has a solid black line in the middle and a grey-green top. I've seen this at a few different Petsmart so it appears each store gets the same stock. My second otocat was from Lucky's Aquarium where I was allowed to net my own. This second otocat has the same black stripe in the same location but the top has a kind of morse code pattern to it (fish code?  hehe probably in code saying 'don't eat me'  ). I was at BigAl's (North York) a few days ago and spent a few mins closely looking at the otocats and they had the same morse code like dashing as the one I got from Lucky's. I actually thought the first time I got it from Lucky's that I got a new species which I saw online with the name 'Batmanni'.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Don't know if you'd find local breeders for the Zebra otos - I don't even know if others are breeding the regular otos.

I'm trying to get some zebra otos, but I've never been able to find anymore after seeing them at Big Als scarborough once earlier last year.
Hopefully I can get Harold at Menagerie to order me some in.


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