New tank additions - Oto - what to feed?

PaperclipGirl

I just addes a few Oto to my tank. They took off right away and started sucking on things! Yay! but I worry that there might not be enough food for them, I do have a lot of the "brown" algae so I hope they will be fat happy campers soon! What else can I feed them?


I have a lot of questions about feeding the fish too...


Fresh veggies? Cooked veggies?

Can I fertilize my garden with the dirty tank water or only non-edible plants?

redchigh

most books say that any kind of steamed or blanched vegetable is okay for herbivorous fish, but I wouldn't do that unless you're super-experianced at water chemistry.
They can foul your tank kinda quickly.

I would probably stick to spirulina tablets (look at the ingredients list and make sure they don't have any copper, it's dangerous to inverts- even if you don't have any now, you don't want to forget later...)

I bet the occasional meaty snack would be okay for them (microworms, etc), but very very rarely, and not neccesary with spirulina.
With regular algae tabs, that might need a tiny bit of protein. (many types of algae have protein, but cheap "algae" tabs with very little algae in them might not have enough...)

Good luck! BTW, make sure you give them some sort of food within a couple days of introducing them (if from a store) or a few hours after if they were shipped. I think I starved my otto.
plus they seem sensitive to water chemistry, so make sure you stay on top of things.

1077

[quote=redchigh;324163]most books say that any kind of steamed or blanched vegetable is okay for herbivorous fish, but I wouldn't do that unless you're super-experianced at water chemistry.
They can foul your tank kinda quickly.

I would probably stick to spirulina tablets (look at the ingredients list and make sure they don't have any copper, it's dangerous to inverts- even if you don't have any now, you don't want to forget later...)

I bet the occasional meaty snack would be okay for them (microworms, etc), but very very rarely, and not neccesary with spirulina.
With regular algae tabs, that might need a tiny bit of protein. (many types of algae have protein, but cheap "algae" tabs with very little algae in them might not have enough...)

Good luck! BTW, make sure you give them some sort of food within a couple days of introducing them (if from a store) or a few hours after if they were shipped. I think I starved my otto.
plus they seem sensitive to water chemistry, so make sure you stay on top of things.[



Actually vegetable foods such as cucumber,lettuce,zuchinni,etc, contain none of the animal proteins that foul the water and can be left in the tank for a couple days without any harm to water chemistry. Is foods that contain animal proteins that will foul the water as they decompose and most fish foods contain such proteins.

jaysee

You can grow algae outside of the tank. There's a good use for a fishbowl! Put some big stones in the bowl and put it in the sun. If you have a few stones, you can rotate them so that you've always got an algae covered stone to put in the tank.

iamntbatman

What jaysee mentioned might very well be your only option, as otos are known for being picky eaters and many will only eat algae. Before you do that, though, you should see how well they take to algae-based prepared foods and green vegetables as these would be much less of a hassle than algae-covered rocks.

PaperclipGirl

Thank you all so much for all the information!

So far all of them are still alive - I got 5 with the expectation that a 2 or more would not make it. I hope that I don't starve them. Going to the next town over that had a LFS, so I can get them something to eat.

aunt kymmie

I always have to add my 2 cents as far as spinach. My otos LOVE spinach. I use a flat knife to press down on the leaf (to "soften" it up) and then put it in a veggie clip and attach it to the side of the tank.