# Otocinclus fry? [56k warning]



## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Alright, here's the story: I went to turn the lights on my 29g on this morning and i find like half a dozen, what appear to be, otocinclus fry hanging on the back glass (crazy brown algae back there). So, there hasn't been any otos in this tank until this sunday in which i transfered one along with 5 neon tetras from my 10g because i was adding shrimp to the 10g. I had 3 otos in total to start with (in the 10g). They have been in there since late novemberish. I'm just a bit confused here because i have no clue how i ended up with fry in the first place. I honestly didn't expect this knowing that Otos lay eggs o.o

Ok so here's a bit of info on the 29g. It's planted with trimmings from my 10g (mainly just sunset hygro with some random trimmings of water sprite, most of the watersprite is floating). I've only been adding the water sprite trimmings probably around early to mid Janurary. Pretty much just two plants..no hardscape really, it's just my random tank right now ._. There are a dozen or so zebra danios, another dozen or so neon tetras and a male betta. Nothing special really. Now my question is: are there any copepods or anything else out there that produce, what look like, fry that hang on glass (including the zebra danios and neon tetras)? 

In terms of the fry though, when i turned on the lights, moments later the zebra danios noticed some of the fry...and umm..lets just say that i only saw one retreat back to the gravel. Later in the afternoon today i did notice one get sucked into the filter...i'm going to leave it there and assume that it will be safer and better off in there because of all the food it'll have access to. I only clean the tank every few weeks, and i don't think i've touched the filter since i did my gravel change a few months back.

I'm a bit surprised that anything is breeding in my 10g/29g because i just had a shrimp (Red Cherry Shrimp) wipe out on sunday. 
Oh ya, and i thought Otos were suppose to be difficult or close to impossible to breed in aquariums? 

Comments/Concerns/Criticism/Questions/Suggestions/Advice/Anything?

-Daniel :thumbsup:


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Well, i just turned the lights off half an hour ago and i just went down to take a look (with room lights on) and i counted about 5 or so. They don't look exactly like that http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/shrimp_files/Fry001.jpg but they do cling onto the glass.


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## fshfanatic (Apr 20, 2006)

Page Doesn't Exist


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## aschaal03 (Feb 2, 2009)

yeah that link doesn't work.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

No, they're not impossible to breed in aquariums, just very particular about water parameters. They need clean, soft water and a heavily planted tank. 

www.otocinclus.com is a great resource.

If you've truly got baby Otos- congrats! You must be doing something right! :thumbsup:


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## Gatekeeper (Feb 20, 2007)

Yea, thats a "403 Page Doesn't Exist"


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Sorry about the link. http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile76.html 
Scroll down a bit on that page. 
Thanks lauraleellbp 

I counted again after i posted and before i went to sleep and i counted 10  This morning another few got eaten =(
My plan as of now is to just stick some plastic plants in there because i don't have too much plant mass around the sides just so they have more hiding space. Going to also add a lot of other random stuff around to add more hiding places.

Going to try and get some better pictures later 
-Daniel


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Alright, so here are the pictures....please excuse the very crappy photography...poor lighting+crappy camera+shaky hands doesn't result in good pictures. 

I think these are eggs..nothing else in the tank but otos (no snails). This picture is from my 10g where the only inhabitants are the two otos. 









This is one of those betta tanks (0.5 gallons i think) and it's housing about 8-9 fry. I had to siphon them out because they were so tiny =s
I do have one of those breeder box things but i didn't use it because i was afraid that the fry would slip out of the slits. This tank is floating in the 29g, seen in the top right of the next few pics. 









Here are some pics of the tank with and without flash.

























Finally, here are two of the babies i found when i was taking these pictures.
















Same baby a few second later, i think this one is much clearer.









As always, comments/questions/suggestions/whatever are welcome 
-Daniel


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Here's a video of the two oto's "hanging out" 
http://i39.photobucket.com/player.s...cket.com/albums/e176/gamexeater/MVI_0611x.flv

Is there anything that i can do to speed up the growth of the fry? 
Are baby otocinclus nocturnal? They don't seem to move unless it's dark.


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## t0p_sh0tta (Jan 24, 2008)

gamexeater said:


> They don't seem to move unless it's dark.


That probably has more to do with them being at the bottom of the food chain.


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## Complexity (Jan 30, 2008)

gmccreedy said:


> Yea, thats a "403 Page Doesn't Exist"


404 is the code for a page that doesn't exist. 403 is a page that's restricted in that it cannot be accessed from a page other than it's domain. It's called a "referrer" (as in which page referred you to the picture). This is done to prevent people from stealing bandwidth.

That's why the picture does, in fact, exist, but cannot be displayed from here.

I knew you were dying to know this. :hihi:



gamexeater said:


> They don't look exactly like that http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/shrimp_files/Fry001.jpg but they do cling onto the glass.


They don't look like baby ottos to me either. Not sure what they are though.

I'd be concerned that the betta tank you have in your main tank cannot receive oxygen. Breeder nets are nets for a reason.

Put some live plants in with them so they can eat the (ugh, can't think of the word) little tiny stuff that lives on plants that fry eat (did that work?). The live plants can help with keeping the water clean and oxygenated. However, I'd find a better home for them long term.

It'll be interesting to see what they turn out to be!


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

t0p - That seems like a good explaination to me, but i would expect based on that logic that they would start moving now that they are isolated in the little tank.

complexity - thanks for the informative informative (lol) on the 404/403 codes, i really had no clue about that =s I actually threw a lot of sunset hygro in there, along with plastic plants, i wanted to provide them with everything i could, i even put some suction cups in there, since i often see my otos snacking on them. Not sure myself what exactly they eat..soft algae? the slimey stuff? I plan on swapping out some of the water in the betta tank for the tank water, every few days. 

My only other safe alternative is my 10g as of now but i'm not sure if it's safe after my shrimp die off but the otos in there are still alive and happy. My only concern with putting the fry in the 10g is the otos eating them...but i'm not sure what would happen =s Thoughts?



Complexity said:


> They don't look like baby ottos to me either. Not sure what they are though.


Could it be that they aren't mature enough?


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## Down_Shift (Sep 20, 2008)

That is soo awesome... hopefully they make it!!


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## fishsandwitch (Apr 20, 2008)

Dont look like oto fry to me.


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## Homer_Simpson (May 10, 2007)

It is hard to tell from those pictures, but if they even remotely look like the picture the guy who had them posted in this link, then could very well be. 

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f82/omg-ive-got-oto-fry-34978.html

What else could they be? Possibly shrimplets that hijacked on some plants.


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Down_Shift said:


> That is soo awesome... hopefully they make it!!


I hope so too 



fishsandwitch said:


> Dont look like oto fry to me.





Homer_Simpson said:


> It is hard to tell from those pictures, but if they even remotely look like the picture the guy who had them posted in this link, then could very well be.
> 
> http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums...fry-34978.html
> 
> What else could they be? Possibly shrimplets that hijacked on some plants.


Ok maybe i should have mentioned that i only noticed them on wednesday of last week when i was turning on the lights in the morning. I usually only see planarians and what not but i was shocked to see the fry. So shocked, in fact, that i thought they were some kind of copepod.. Out of all that, my point is that they could just be super young and over time will develop more oto-like characteristics.
Oh and they are definitely not shrimp but it's hard to tell with the pictures i uploaded..they are just so tiny. They are probably as thin as the lines on a ruler/measuring tape (especially the smaller ones), i've pretty much lost sight of half of them in that 0.5g tank. Their size also kind of agrees with the "eggs" that i spotted on my java fern leaf because the eggs were really tiny. 

I guess only time will tell..:icon_roll


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## rasetsu (Oct 11, 2007)

Homer_Simpson said:


> It is hard to tell from those pictures, but if they even remotely look like the picture the guy who had them posted in this link, then could very well be.
> 
> http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f82/omg-ive-got-oto-fry-34978.html
> 
> What else could they be? Possibly shrimplets that hijacked on some plants.


The fry in that link might be a pleco. It's almost not fair that fish in that tank have bred. The tank looks like a Petsmart/Petco nightmare tank.

I can't see the fry at all in OP's pictures. I've had various numbers of otos in my 75 that's stuffed with plants. I've never seen fry. I even have two females that are very plump full of eggs. I can see the yellow eggs in their belly because the skin is stretched and translucent.


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## mistergreen (Dec 9, 2006)

you can siphon the fry out... It might not survive in a community tank anyway.


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

mistergreen said:


> you can siphon the fry out... It might not survive in a community tank anyway.


Exactly what i did, it would have been impossible to net them out. I have them in a 0.5g floating in the 29g. 



rasetsu said:


> The fry in that link might be a pleco. It's almost not fair that fish in that tank have bred. The tank looks like a Petsmart/Petco nightmare tank.
> 
> I can't see the fry at all in OP's pictures. I've had various numbers of otos in my 75 that's stuffed with plants. I've never seen fry. I even have two females that are very plump full of eggs. I can see the yellow eggs in their belly because the skin is stretched and translucent.


Maybe having a petsmart/petco nightmare tank is what it takes to breed the fish?  Again, i apologize for the crappy pictures >_< but it's hard to get good pictures since they are so tiny. I don't think i've noticed any eggs on the belly, where exactly would i be looking? Pics?

Anyway, i just wanted to update on the progress. I was just looking at the 0.5g from above and i noticed 3 fry swimming around very actively!! That's a good thing..right? But i've pretty much lost track of the other 5 or so in the tank...hopefully they are alive and hiding because i see nothing on the bottom.


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## gamexeater (Sep 20, 2008)

Ugh..Must have been my bad luck month last month or something because i found a flake of fish food in the 0.5g tank and lots of "burnt" fry on the bottom. Not sure if any survived by i'm being hopeful :s
Anyway, I probably still have fry in the tank, maybe only a couple but i do recall seeing one being sucked into the filter. In any case my two otos are still happy in the 10g and the "eggs" on the leaf seem to be maturing, they are much darker now. I also noticed some different "eggs" that looked more like eggs in some of my HM, that disappeared the next morning. 
I've been really busy with school lately and haven't had the time to stare at my tanks like i did early this year. Lots of summatives and projects to do, so i apologize for the delayed reply. 

-Daniel


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## fish wrangler (Oct 17, 2014)

Thank you for making this thread! I just found otocinclus eggs in my 29 gallon. Not trying to breed them, and my levels don't seem right for breeding. 7.5pH, 30 ppm nitrates, 80ppm GH, and 120ppm KH.


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## Maechael (Sep 9, 2012)

This thread is six years old.
Kudos on eggs though.


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