Oto Cats!

[IvanSanchez]

Okay soo....
I bought three Oto's from T&T a month ago or more and they were in my 10 gallon but weren't eating algae at all. They just were sucked on the glass near the intake of my filter and stayed there all day.
Moved all three to my 29gallon thinking it was just lack of space and they just don't wanna move!!!!

I bought two yesterday from Aquarium World and put them in my 10 gallon to see if they were different.... These two little guys are tearing it up on the algae!!!! Constantly moving around from back to front, side to side and cleaning up my tank!

On the other hand.... My three oto's in my 29 gallon are just chillin' either on my heater or on the glass with the least movement possible.

Is there something wrong with them? Maybe a bad batch of oto's? Looking at them as i'm typing this up..... the only movement i see is swimming up and down but not really eating up algae.

Should I buy two more for the 29 or just wait and see. There's an abundance of brown and green algae on all the walls minus the front from cleaning.

[Mzungu]

Have you ever noticed your old otos eating the food when you feed the other fishes? Maybe they discovered they like your food better than algae. Wouldn't put it past them - plecos do it all the time. )

[IvanSanchez]

They never eat any other food. Most of the food in my 29gal gets eaten and the cories and amano shrimp usually do a great job of cleaning up. The oto's never move during feeding. I've tried Veggies also. I've seen pics of otos on celery and other veggies. I tried celery, spinach, lettuce, carrots, zucchini, squash and cucumber. All of the food was left in the morning and placed on the opposite end of otos. I left the veggies in there till late at night, about 4-5 hours of lights off. I was usually always in the room and never saw an oto on it. Amanos loved it and so did the other fish but there were always plenty of leftovers.
For now if they die soon i'll know it's from lack of eating... and they do seem a bit skinnier. hopefully their natural instincts pop in and they start cleaning up my tank :)

[jhenry]

What is the temperature in each on the tanks?

[IvanSanchez]

temp in my 10gal is set at 74 and my 29 at 78

[jhenry]

I don't know if it's true for o-cats but plecos will slow down eating to colder the water is. Try raising the temp and see what they do. Just a thought

[IvanSanchez]

Thanks Jhenry for all the feedback. I'll raise the temp in the 29 tomorrow. maybe 80. I'll leave for 2-3days and see if anything changes.

[Rispa]

What was the outcome?