Otocinclus Indepth

Otocinclus Indepth

By Becki Though I'm not an expert on catfish, I've picked up quite a bit of info on Otos over the last couple of years. Much of this has been from looking them up on the internet (planetcatfish.com is a good resource), but quite a bit has been learned from watching these algae vacuum cleaners each day for a few years.

"What can I do to get my Otos to notice the algae disk?"

This is one of the first questions new Oto owners ask when their fish totally ignore the food that is offered. Since all other fish need to be actively fed, some people might start to worry that something is wrong.

A Zebra Oto © Becki Once they clean up any visible algae in a tank, there is still algae and other organisms on plant leaves and tank surfaces that the Otos will eat. It is a good idea to supplement their diet with vegetables, but algae disks or wafers seem to be ignored by almost all Otos. When I had some newly-imported zebra Otos shipped to me at work, I was ready for their arrival with a small plastic tank, some algae disks, and a strip of seaweed. Since they were recently imported, the Otos were very thin, and I figured that they would munch on the algae disks until I could get home and cook up some zucchini. The Otos didn't even touch the algae disks, but nibbled a little on the seaweed. When I got them home, they pretty much immediately started munching away on the zucchini I placed in their tank.

Since it seems the common experience with these fish is that they shun algae wafers, it's probably best to go with fresh veggies or seaweed sheets as a supplement to their diet.