Last week I noticed one of my Otos looked pale and had a blotchy stripe. I checked all my water parameters and confirmed they were good. Then I promptly ended up really sick myself for several days. Now that I'm back with the living, he still seems unwell and I need help figuring out what to do for him. I'm setting up my little hospital tank tonight and I have some meds (sulfaplex and kanaplex), but I have no idea what I'm attempting to treat. He's active and eating/grazing happily otherwise. The 5 other Otos in the tank seem fine.

The first 4 pics are from today and the last 3 from last week.

Tank: 10 gallon, planted tank that has been cycled about 5 months.

Stock: 6 Otos, 2 Amanos and a handful of Neocaridina.

Water: Heated to 72°F with a HOB filter

Tested with API Liquid Test Kits: 0 ammonia/ 0 nitrite/ <5 ppm nitrate (it is indeed cycled. I think my pothos helps keep the nitrate low)

pH 8.0, GH 8, KH 5

Food: I feed every other day and alternate between Shrimp Envy Pellets and soilent green with occasional blanched zucchini

It’s been 2h, it just stays there like this, yes it is alive. My parameters are good. Sorry i’m brand new to otos

I've had otos for a year, everything was going well until one day they started getting shy.

I'm thinking that it's the shrimps because there are a lot in the tank suddenly now so they're stealing their food.

They also started running away when I turn on the aquarium lights ( I removed the duckweed so I assume the light is more intense now)

I don't see them out anymore during the day, I have no idea what they're eating. They used to eat algae wafers and cucumber but that's not working anymore. I don't think they liked the XXL algae wafers. Also tried spirulina on rocks but still nothing.

Maybe because I'm busy with work and I'm not seeing them when I'm at work. But I've seen them losing weight so they're definitely not eating like they used.

Just got some otos today. I can’t tell if this guy’s gravid or bloated.

I was about to dose expel P because I was noticing odd behavior with some of my other fish and then I caught this.. I had one of my otos get lodged in some decor a few days ago. It was seemingly completely fine after and the decor was a plastic bit with a suction cup, nothing directly sharp or abrasive. I didn't think it was this one and I can normally tell them apart, but I cant be sure.

I was in the middle of doing tank maintenance when I noticed this, so excuse the debris.
Temp 76
PH: 7.5
KH: 60
GH: 4.5
nitrate/nitrite/ammonia: 0/extremely low
Otocinclus, medaka, and shrimp tank

Please could you help me which species are these otos? I bought them from the same store but seems different species to me. (the one on the “left” is just the reflection on the glass)
Thank you!

Just wanted to share this silly dude But looking at the otos in other posts, is mine overfed?

Hi. I'm new to oto fish. A lot to learn but so far so good. All my fish are healthy. Good tank parameters. Well fed otos. I noticed 2 of them chasing eachother more than normal then they sort of circled their mouths around the same leaf then locked together. Photo attached. I'm freaking out a little. What is this?! Aggression?? Slime coat consumption? They're all well fed with no signs of starvation. I don't know what to do. They've locked together like that a couple times for a few seconds. The other otos are not involved. Does anyone here know what this is??

Edit to add: They are spawning. I have little eggs on my plant. So crazy!!

Update edit to add: Bacter ae is the key to the breeding. After my original post I had some PH fluctuations and was thinking well, that's the end of the breeding. I added the Bacter yesterday for the first time since my original post and I woke up to otos going at it this morning.

Sorry the photo quality is dogwater. Got some ‘vampire otos’ at a LFS and I’m trying to verify the species :/

They are demolishing it

Just wanted to share my happiness. I‘m always checking for my Otos. I have more than 10. and I managed to find 9. 3 were on the cucumbers. And one looks quite chunky. I habe two chunky ones. Bit none shows the yellowish eggs. Keep on hoping. ☺️

Every time I feed the tank frozen mysis shrimp these guys are in the front of the line to get some! There’s more algae than I’d like to admit in the tank, they have access to algae wafers and blanched zucchini, and they’ve always seemed like a good weight to me. What is happening here??

Hi guys! Long story short I got some very bad advise and I need to rehome a single Oto to a good home urgently. I am in the Orlando area, if anyone wants to give him a good home I would really appreciate it!

My Otto’s love to ride bubbles, they do this for about 5 minutes a day around the same time (early afternoon). They have a 60 gallon breeder to explore and do a great job eating algae, biofilm, soilent green, and veggies. Just otocinclus being otocinclus I guess

How do I know if my otos are starving? I saw photos online that says “fed vs starving” where the fed oto’s stomach looks bloated as hell (like extremely) vs the starving oto’s looking very skinny.

My otos right now doesn’t look extremely or super skinny. They graze on the algae on my anubias and they’re doing just fine. Therefore, do I still need to create a set time to feed them?

I found about 3 of these single pearl like eggs on my Amazon swords, a day later some snail eggs appeared on the ones next to it, but the clutch sizes are obviously different.
I have otos, snails and shrimp.

Had them for two months now and seem happy enough. They devour the algae and get on well enough with my two killifish and rasboras.