# Fat Otocinclus



## LittleWatty (May 13, 2012)

How fat is too fat? I remember reading somewhere that a fat oto is a happy oto, but mine are just ridiculous. Should I be worried, or is this normal for an oto? They weren't anywhere near this size during quarantine. And they're very young. Probably 3/4-1 inch at most


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## lvandert (Feb 23, 2012)

I had a few of those in my old old old aquarium and I called them Buddah and Belly lol.


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## LittleWatty (May 13, 2012)

lol if I could tell the difference between any of mine, I might give them names, but they all look identical!


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## lvandert (Feb 23, 2012)

lol I had one that was slightly bigger than the other. I always thought mine were going to burst but they never did... I don't think there is anything you can really do to stop them from eating. Aside from tear the tank down and clean it, which isn't really a feasible option.


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## LittleWatty (May 13, 2012)

Well, I just want to make sure its not an unhealthy bloat, like dropsy or something. Leomhann isn't bloated at all, so I can't imagine its dropsy, but still. I wanted to be sure!


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## lvandert (Feb 23, 2012)

no, they look happy and chubby, just what their supposed to be. Their color looks good and I'm assuming their lively. Their just chunky around the midsection. I asked myself that question a few times when they were in my tank.


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## LittleWatty (May 13, 2012)

Yeah, they're VERY lively. I think they're trying to compete with Tintrí for my most active fish. My first tankmate for Leo was a pleco that wouldn't eat, so I thought maybe there wasn't any aglae in the tank. But, since my otos are nice and fat, I guess that pleco was just sick or really really picky. I guess I won't worry about these little guys unless they start looking like the ADF's I just got (which were half starved)


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## lvandert (Feb 23, 2012)

awwws poor babies. Plecos are odd sometimes.


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## LittleWatty (May 13, 2012)

Yeah, and I really wanted one to... have for several years. But, I guess I'll just wait until I have the space for my 20 gallon long sorority, then I might try my hand at getting another one. The first one didn't eat, and the replacement one (for whatever reason) died overnight. But, so far so good with the otos. One of these days, I'm going to end up with plecos, otos, and cories XD not all in the same tanks, but I'll have them all one day!


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## lvandert (Feb 23, 2012)

I'm working on a 55 gallon set up for cichlids and I'm contemplating adding a bristle nose pleco if everything works out alright


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## LittleWatty (May 13, 2012)

I've always had a love for plecos, but cories are just too cute, and these active little otos are stealing my heart as we speak. They're hard to find in my pretty heavily planted tank, but whenever I do see them, they're darting all over the place. Its fun to watch ^.^


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## lvandert (Feb 23, 2012)

lol agreed. I have a LFS that has long finned bristle nose, and the another store has a tank FULL of baby bristle nose.


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## LittleWatty (May 13, 2012)

I've been chatting with the person who orders the fish at my local Petco (she really knows her stuff, its a breath of fresh air compared to the other idiots that work there!), and she's thinking of ordering some long finned albino bristle nose plecos! Now that would be a sight. The only reason they don't stock them often is because the other fish tend to get really nippy. She did look into ordering some pygmy or dwarf cories for me, and I think I'll love her if she ever gets them for me XD She just can't find any vendors that sell them.


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## Aus (Feb 3, 2012)

I love my baby bristlenose! I was worried he wouldn't get enough to eat in the 3ft tank, but he's fat as mud and grazes all day on the driftwood gunk and the algae I'm encouraging with a little dose of natural sunlight every day. 

He won't touch zucchini, though. Ignores it utterly. :|

I'm a bit worried he may not be getting all the nutrients he needs.

I love your tubby little otos.  I'd have liked to tried them out in the strohi tank, but there was none in the store and I figured it'd take a couple of years at least for Om-nomnom (the pleco) to outgrow this tank. Now I'm not so sure.. he seems to have grown half an inch already (he was about an inch long when I got him) and 30-35 gallons may not be enough once he gets full size, from what I can tell?

Catfish in general are wonderful. I'd like to have kuhli loaches, long finned plecos, various schools of corys - I love the pandas and pygmies - and heck, why not one of those scary looking armour plated jobs from the Amazon River that needs a fifteen foot tank and a diet of newly hatched brontosaurus whelps...

Okay, maybe that's a little overboard. =P But I do want to keep otos one day.


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## xShainax (Feb 11, 2012)

I had one die of dropsy


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## LittleWatty (May 13, 2012)

Well, I found out why my otos are so fat... they're actually eating the algae wafers I drop in there! XD I just saw one nibbling at the remains of yesterday's wafer before darting off because I got too close


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## lvandert (Feb 23, 2012)

lol that'll do it, they're little piggies


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## LittleWatty (May 13, 2012)

My otos seem to have a taste for day-old algae wafers XD they won't touch it while its hard, but if its been sitting at the bottom of the tank for at least 12 hours, they might nibble at it. The closer it is to 24 hours, the more they eat it! Since they're so small, I'm only giving them one big Hakari (green) wafer every other day. There's some algae in the tank, but I don't know if they like it, so I'm giving them wafers too.


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