# GDA Should I get Oto's or Amano's?



## wetworks (Jul 22, 2011)

A lot of people with newer tanks actually manage to starve their Oto's unless they supplement their diet with algae wafers or bottom feeder pellets. The bio-load for both species you want is insignificant; you would be able to safely put both 4 Oto's and 8-10 Amanos with almost no increase in load on your system. Honestly, the biggest portion of bio-load in your tank will be due to uneaten food you feed your other shimps; Oto's and Amanos will both help with this. Amanos can be a bit greedy, but while they are pushy they never actually hurt other tank inhabitants. Having dual filters on your system (HOB and sponge) will go a long way toward keeping your system more stable. 

With all of that said, I have recently come to the conclusion that most algae "problems" are 1) Due to an imbalance somewhere in your system and 2) As such, can not be properly fixed by adding algae eating animals. The algae is just a symptom, and trying to eradicate the algae by introducing algae eating fauna does absolutely nothing to stop whatever is REALLY causing your algae troubles in the first place. Looking at your tank specs, I would say it is the imbalance between your DIY CO2 and your high light levels. You can probably fix this by 1) raising your light higher above the tank, 2) lowering the level of light by using less bulbs or a smaller fixture, 3) using a plant grow bulb (not sure what kind of bulbs you use...) or, the best solution: 4) Upgrade to pressurized CO2. Good luck!


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## Mike Hawk (Mar 9, 2012)

Thanks wetworks for that great info, I did raise the lights a few inches up and shorted the photoperiod. I have not seen any new algae growth in the last few days so I think that helped. I plant on switching to paintball CO2 as soon as funds become available. I think I'm going to go with Oto's but I'm not sure how good they are at eating GDA, can anyone comment on their algae eating ability's?


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## cradleoffilthfan (Jan 19, 2009)

My experience with them is they mostly hang on the glass, wood, or plants. I don't think I ever really saw my oto's on the rocks sucking algae off of them. I would say the shrimp are going to hang out on the rocks, getting their algae there, also on the plants and wood, etc, and if you need your glass cleaned, the oto's are the way to go. You might want to get both. Also be careful because the LFS here was selling Amano shrimp, but they were really glass shrimp. Not the same thing, and you mentioned people had them growing large, which they don't really, they might be glass shrimp they have instead and just don't know it. Amano shrimp stay small and eat all kinds of algae. If I were you, I would stick with shrimp for the tank, since I believe they are even less sensitive than the oto's in my opinion. Oto's need a lot of algae constantly and if you have a small tank, they will quickly run out of things to eat, and the one's I had never really touched the algae tablets. I would stick with shrimp. They are great algae eaters, and if you supplement their diet, they take that too, they aren't really that picky. Then your just left with having to clean the glass every once in a while, but even if you had oto's, they wouldn't get the glass "Clear." You would still have to clean it, cause they leave little oto "Kisses" everywhere they clean. Just my opinion though.


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## Mike Hawk (Mar 9, 2012)

Thanks for the info cradle


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## jkan0228 (Feb 6, 2011)

Just so you know, amanos can get to 2"+ even 3" as they get older.


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## mordalphus (Jun 23, 2010)

Otos are great at eating algae, especially off of glass. Mine ate all the algae off of my diatom covered 50 gallon tank in a little over 48 hours (I went on a 2 week vacation, and diatoms literally covered the gravel, all plants and all 4 surfaces of glass) I had 7 in there, so they did it pretty quickly. A good choice overall, and neat fish as well. Amanos get big, will steal food, and just be jerks overall. I've also never seen one eating algae off my glass, only hair algae.


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## Mike Hawk (Mar 9, 2012)

Thanks for the info guys I'm going to pick up some oto's tonight. The size of them is not really a problem as I have an almost empty 55g I can move a few into once they have done their job.


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