The Oto Journal

Couple of shots from today. Egg Development one day.

Here shows two bad eggs up top and two developing babies underneath.


Two new eggs developing:


Proud Parents:

 

Update 16-Jan-2010

As expected, hatching began today. Best I could count at this time is (21) wigglers. Still working to pull down some good shots. Here's the best shots I could get at the moment:

Some of the wigglers:


And here's papa....striking his shark pose:

 

Update 17-Jan-2010

Morning check. Best I can count is still (21) wigglers. Majority of them hiding in the crypt jungle. I'm getting better at spotting them in there. Going to attempt some more pics in there shortly. Lighting isn't all that great but I'll try.

Now the question is...Is mama going to be on the same pattern and lay a smaller batch next week? She is still sporting the plump look.

 

Here's some shots from today. Babies are (1) day old.

Here you will see the baby underneath. There were two babies here which made it impossible for me to remove the bad egg.


One of the better fry pics I've taken I must say:


Fry in the crypt jungle:


Here's how you spot the fry on the undersides of crypt leaves. Look for two little black dots:


So far all remains well. I dropped some more food in and around the plants where the wee ones are. Will be adding some more sea weed later this evening.

 

Update 19-Jan-2010

Just did a quick spot check this morning. Couldn't locate many wigglers but hopefully that is because the light recently came on. Will check again later this afternoon.

As expected, mama laying her second batch of eggs. Found (6) new eggs. I'm going to experiment with some of these. I'm going to move one of the plants over to another tank and see how they do. There are more goodies over there for fry (hopefully). As of now, (5) eggs are on one stem of Bacopa which will make it easy to transfer.

 

Update 20-Jan-2010

Fry development continues to progress well. A big number of them are hiding behind the pre-filter again. Coloring up nicely. Not sure exactly how many are in here but did manage to count (12). The crypt jungle continues to be the main hide out.

Mama wound up only laying those (6) eggs in the second batch. I wound up not moving them to the other tank.

 

Update 22-Jan-2010

Took a break from working on the horse stable to give a checksie. Counted (16) wigglers hanging around. I did not bother counting the ones behind the pre-filter. Little guys showing some pudgieness...always a great sign.

Will be prepping zucchinii to toss in there later today.

 

Update 24-Jan-2010

Topped off the tank just a bit ago. Activity is very high. Wigglers swimming all of the place. Best count I could manage was (14). Only have seen a few on the zucs for now. They are working over everything. Added some seaweed flakes as well.

 

Update 27-Jan-2010

Just checked today and mama is laying more eggs. I find this rather fascinating as this is the third week in a row she has. Granted the ones last week and this week are in very small amounts. I counted (12) this time. There are (6) on one Bacopa stem and I am getting ready to move that stem to another tank and see how they fair over there.

 

Got the eggs transferred over. After I got the stem planted I noticed there are (8) on it instead. Temp is a lower in this tank so hopefully that won't be an issue.

Over in the main tank, there are (13) left.

 

Update 28-Jan-2010

As expected, eggs hatched today. Over in the main tank, I could only spot a few wigglers. Found (1) wiggler from the original batch. Added Veggie flakes to the tank.

On to the test tank. Out of the (8) eggs in there, I saw (7) wigglers on the Bacopa stem. I crushed up some veggie flakes and tried to located them in and around the stem. We'll see how they do.

 

Update 29-Jan-2010

Just checked on both tanks.

Main tank: Found (5) newbies and (1) of the two week olds.
Test tank: Found (5) newbies.

Fed veggie flakes to both tanks. What I do for the test tank is rub the flakes between my fingers to make a fine almost "powdery" mix. I then dip my hand under the water just over the stem and swirl it around. Trying to centrally locate as much as possible. Seems to be working out ok so far. Continuing to monitor.

Haven't had much luck with the zucchini of late. They are real small and wind up floating back to the top after only one day. They must not be in season at the moment I recon.

 

Update 30-Jan-2010

I found myself in the basement and thought I would go ahead and check the tanks. I don't normally do so since the lights haven't been on too long.

Anyway, started with the test tank. No wigglers on the Bacopa. Will move it back over to the main tank. I did spot one on the glass. Tank has white pool filter sand and higher lighting. Makes it bright and not as easy to pick up the wiggles. Mostly light green plants as well.

On to the main tank. Mama has laid more eggs again. I found (18) in here at the moment. Now I can safely say that all my research and observations have led me to confusion. Granted I extremely happy that the breeding is ongoing and would have liked to think I was making progress. She has been continuously laying eggs now for going on four weeks. This is off the charts for any data collected when they first started.

As long as they continue to be happy and breed, the research will continue.

 

So here are the best pics I could get at the moment. These wigglers are in my test tank.





I was able to find (4) on last check.

There are now (21) eggs in the main tank. I saw both of the bigger wigglers that are about 2 weeks old now. Several of the smaller ones that hatched the other day.

 

Observation: strange activity in the second breeding tank today. Needless to say, this tank doesn't quite get the attention that the other Oto tanks do quite simply as it is currently waiting on some zebra oto's. In the mean time, I have two males and one female affinis in there. Had a nice layer of duckweed which I decided to finally remove and work on some more scaping. I topped off with 2g of fresh water to get a little less current going in there while removing the duckweed.

After working in the tank for a spell, I went upstairs to take some zucchini out of the freezer to thaw. Went back down stairs and the oto's were acting rather oddly. Instead of the three of them kinda doing their own thing, they were all over each other. As I sat there and watched, it seemed like the female was trying to "coach" the males into something. Now I'm not reading anything into this but I found that rather odd behavoir. I sat there and watched them playing tag for the longest time. I was sitting on the floor so I could try to not be "up close and personal".

I don't have the same kind of flora in this tank but may have rethink this.

Back to the main tank, lots of activity there as well. New wigglers out and about. The two that are three weeks old are really active. The two week olds are seeming to hide out in the Suesswassertang wall. It's fun watching them dart in and out of there.

Added 1g of fresh water as I can't do a water change as yet.

 

Update 02-Feb-2010

The password is ..... wigglers. ;o)

Check of the tanks turned out very nicely today. We'll start with the test tank. Actually found (5) wigglers today. I feel much better now. 5 out of 8 in a test environment sounds like a good ratio to me. I will duplicate the test if mama lays more eggs.

On to the main tank. Wigglers roving all about. Activity very high.

Second breeding tank. Found no eggs so maybe what I saw yesterday was just them having fun. It's ok as I wasn't expecting anything. I'm working on adding some different flora in there to get back to the same parms and set up as the main tank.

Now...here's the catch. I have to do water changes on all three Oto tanks. No way around it. Expecting some big snows moving in the next few days and I'm sure it will wreak havok on my water. Have to get them changed so I can get the jugs filled up before hand.

 

Water change on the test tank today. Found a nice little surprise! Went to rinse out the media, found (3) wigglers in the filter! Completed the wc and got the wigglers back in the tank. Will have to work on the other half of the tank tomorrow.

 

Update 08-Feb-2010 - Snow Storm Recovery

Disaster strikes courtesy of mother nature. Major snow storm hit the
region. Power went out around 1330hrs on 02/06 and got it back shortly after 1700hrs today. It was a rough go at it considering we are in winter time. It got cold. Luckily we have a fireplace. Burnt up almost all our wood.

Luckily...casulties were kept low (as of now). Looks like I lost all but (2) wigglers from the Oto world. Other casulties include (4) endlers and (3) white clouds. Fish that are currently in distress are both BNPs, a couple more endlers, looks like (3) cherry barbs and two female Oto's (one of which is the female from the second breeding pair). I have the lights on now and will keep them on throughout the night to help with heating.

Water is way too cold to do a water change at the moment. Will do WCs tommorrow at 25-50%. Have fresh water in all the jugs getting ready to go.

So...here's what I did to help the fishies out:
1) Pulled out all CO2 feeds into the tank.
2) Every (2) hours, I would draw out 10% of the water in the tanks using a 1gal jug. I would fill the jug about 3/4 full, cap, and shake really well to oxygenate the water. I would then pour this water back into the tank from a higher distance to create turbulance and add more 02 to the water.
3) Temps in the tanks gradually dropped. Two of them dipped into the 40s. Crisis time. I scrounged what spare blankets I could find and began covering them up. All the other tanks hit the mid 50s. They are in the basement so kept it warmer longer. I covered them as well.
4) On the 29g tank, I increased the water aeration to once an hour. I also increased the amount of water to 25%. I had two jugs of fresh water left. I drew water from the tank then added the fresh. The water I drew, I placed near the fireplace to get warm. I repeated this cycle until the power came back on. (drawing water and replacing with somewhat warmish water).
5) After the 24 hour mark, I treated each tank with Prime at half capacity (I.e 10g tank was treated as a 5g tank). This was done again at the 48 hour mark.

Fishies look in bad shape when the power came back on. BNPs and Oto's are laying on their sides breathing slowly. The others are either on their backs or just sitting at the bottom. Again breathing slowly. I have air pumps going on all the tanks. Looks like Yellow and CR/B shrimps are ok. Can't tell about the Tigers though. Too many plants in there. I did see a few swimming around. Nothing I can do at this time but wait and cross fingers. I am not feeding at this time either. Will wait until after the water changes.

Here's the bad thing....another storm to hit tomorrow into wednesday! Will be rushing to get the water changes done tomorrow and jugs refilled in the event of another outage.

 

Final check of the eve and things remain the same. Temps are coming up on the tanks. No further casulties but the distressed guys remain in the previous state. None have moved from their locations but are still breathing.

 

Morning update: Temps just about normal now in all tanks. I found no further casulties and the fishies that were distressed now appear to be on their way to recovery. The BNPs were getting active again. I moved a piece of driftwood out of the way and they zipped off. Both lady Oto's are now on the glass and no fishies are at the bottom of the tanks. Feeling much better now. Major water changes on tap for today. Snow will be falling soon and near blizzard conditions due to high winds are expected. This time around, the snow will be light and fluffy instead of the heavy wet stuff. The winds will be what we have to watch for with everything still out there on the trees and such. Could have more outages.