# Otocinclus Nitrate tollerance?



## plantetra (May 17, 2014)

I do EI and I have really high Nitrate levels on all of Friday and Saturday first half. I can measure the nitrate level tomorrow and let you know.


----------



## Solcielo lawrencia (Dec 30, 2013)

It's unlikely that this concentration of nitrate is what's causing issues. What else are you dosing?


----------



## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

You mentioned you decreased lighting, did you also decrease co2?

Are the otos gills abnormally red/purple?


----------



## Blacktetra (Mar 19, 2015)

Im only dosing potassium nitrate, potassium phosphate and equilibrium. My plants show some signs of potassium deficiency and calcium deficiency. So I doubt anything else is in especially high amounts. But feel free to give suggestions. I don't have test kits for anything other than the nitrogen cycle, pH, and gh and kh.

Also, I use Tom Barr's non-CO2 method. So no CO2. The oto kicked the bucket since this morning. No obvious discoloration of the gills. Only obvious difference that seemed odd was it's stomach was yellow. I figured that probably was just related to decay. Only other thing different from normal is I was on vacation for three days prior. So the fish weren't fed, but three days isn't that long. And I didn't over-feed prior to leaving.


----------



## plantetra (May 17, 2014)

I have a Nitrate level of close to 80PPM and they all seem to be doing fine. This is the level I have on Most Fridays. But it looks like Nitrate isnt the issue. This is just for your info.


----------



## Akaliman (Jul 28, 2014)

you seem to have a high nitrate level.
don't you have an algae problem with that over 50ppm?


----------



## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

I have heard of many people having otos for the first months of so, but then they start dying off. I hear that is probably due to poor water conditions since they are sensitive or they starve to death from lack of food that they will eat. I haven't had otos myself, but I hear they only eat certain things like diatoms and soft green algae. Some say they eat commercial/manufactured fish food, some say they don't, no personal experience to side with one or the other. Just something to look into.


----------



## Blacktetra (Mar 19, 2015)

Thanks water, but I mentioned at the end of my post that I've owned these ottos for about 10 months. They aren't starving despite not eating fish food. I do offer veggies at times, but often they ignore them. The water condition only dropped as I failed to adjust dosing with a lower light level. 


As for the 80ppm nitrate level, how fast does that decline? I would bet that a fish can tolerate high nitrate levels for a couple days so long as they go back down to safer levels for most of the week.


----------



## kevmo911 (Sep 24, 2010)

It's not nitrates.

I don't suppose you've checked ammonia and nitrite levels recently? Not saying that's the issue, but you should start trying to figure out what else might have been the culprit.


----------



## Blacktetra (Mar 19, 2015)

kevmo911 said:


> It's not nitrates.
> 
> I don't suppose you've checked ammonia and nitrite levels recently? Not saying that's the issue, but you should start trying to figure out what else might have been the culprit.



Now I'm a bit concerned.
I tested nitrite and ammonia. Nitrite was zero (at the time of death of my second oto) but ammonia was 0.15ppm which I attributed to not finding the other dead oto till earlier that same morning (the one the second oto died).

So I'm not sure what killed the first, I figure it had to be the 100~ppm nitrate, I suppose the first dead fish could have raised the ammonia level and it could have been much higher prior to my testing it, and that may have been what killed the second? But I wouldn't think 0.15~ppm ammonia would do it, and I doubt the ammonia level got much higher, the tank is heavily planted. It's non-co2, but it still absorbs ammonia pretty fast.

Bump: Just checked kh and gh and both are about 9 german degrees(drops). So I doubt it's that.


----------



## Blacktetra (Mar 19, 2015)

I'm fairly confident that it was the nitrate level. But if anyone else has thoughts please share them. I'd like to know if I'm going to lose any other fish PRIOR to losing them. But so far, now that nitrates are balanced, I'm not seeing a problem with the other two otos.


----------

