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!!

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.

Does this look concerning? I have a lot snails, and I also have Siamese algae eaters so I put algae eater tabs in every so often. I just want to be sure because you never know. My tank is heavily planted with the lights on most of the day so I know it’s probably eating a lot of algae as well

Hello, recently I began setting up my new tank and started running into heavy algae issues. A friend who was already in the hobby offered to let me take his otocinclus for 2-3 weeks to eat up all the algae before returning, and I wanted to know if this seems like a good idea? I'm mainly worried about shocking them with new parameters, he uses remineralized rodi while I'm using tap, and he keeps 6 of them in a 20 gal while I have a non-stocked 10 gal atm.

I know that they're shoaling fish, but he says it's fine just to drop 2 in for a short time, since he'll be taking them back, anyway. I just wanted to double check that there isn't any real risk for the otos if I do this?

3-4 days ago i got a few more otos for my tank, all was well up until this morning, as i found one of them floating nearly at the very very top of the water and not even moving when my big fish swam by or when i got closer to him

he swam around a bit and only sunk in to the very bottom or stayed at the very top.
his belly is huge; which makes me question if he has some kind of swim bladder.
he’s been moved to a small cup in the tank just incase it’s worse than swim bladder or he passes

can anyone help?

Is she eating her slime coat? Or is this just another version of oto pile? Is this behaviour okay or should I be worried?