The Oto Journal

Thx...it is a bummer.

I will be offering up some of the older ones in the coming weeks.

As for the project, well, there is little to none (more closely to the none part) about breeding Otos in captivity. So that's where my focus has been in seeing if there is any kind of link that I can put together for other keepers.

 

Update 21-Apr-2010

Last update until Monday. Heading out of town for a few days. Crossing fingers that fry will manage with a sitter.

Over in the fry tank, I found both remaining fry in this tank. They are pretty active at the moment. I placed a small piece of zucchini in there yesterday. Will remove it tomorrow before leaving and have another small piece added on Friday.

In the main, all still doing well. Fry guys zipping all over the place in there. Adding another 3/4g fresh water to last through the weekend. I'm anticipating mama to lay eggs at any point. I might even get lucky and she might still lay some tonight for me to move over to the fry tank before leaving.

That's it for now. We'll see everyone back here on Monday.

 

Update 26-Apr-2010

Well, finally got down and looked at the tanks. Very dissapointed in the sitter. It is bad. All the tanks were overfed. Absolutely horrible! Where to start:

1) Fry tank. I did not find the two little fry guys when I turned on the light today. I'll check again shortly.
2) Main breeder. Green bottom and some food fuzzing over. Didn't immediately find any casulties in here. Didn't find any of the existing fry but I didn't look very hard at the moment. And...as expected....tons of new fry all over this tank. Puts me in a major quandry of what to do with this tank. I can't adequately remove all this excess food without adversly affecting the fry. I'll do a water test and see about my ammonia level. I have a feeling that I am going to have to sacrifice this brood to get the water quality back. I will pull out 1/2 gallon and fill in with a full gallon. I might be able to syphon some of this out but will have to gravel vac.
3) O. Macrospilus breeder w/ CRS/CBS shrimp. This tank was by far the worst. Almost the entire bottom of the tank was green from all of the food that was at the bottom. Several, several dead shrimp. No adults but all babies. :rant: :censored: :rant: :censored: :rant: . Still have alot of shrimp in there but I sure did loose a lot. So not happy! I immediately started a 10% water change sucking out as many of the dead and most of the food as I could. I will have to do a gravel vac tomorrow to repair the rest of the damage.

Other tanks overfed as well, but not as near the damage.

 

So I went back to check on the tanks. Nothing at all in the fry tank. Test 1 is now officially closed due to human error. 50% water change scheduled for tomorrow.

I turned on the light for the main tank to better assess the situation. I was really surprised at what I found. I did find all (8) of the older fry and man have they grown. This is the critical week for them. If they make it to Wednesday, their odds increase to nearly 100%. As for the new fry...all I can say is WOW. The tank is absolutely teaming with new wigglers. I have decided to leave the tank as is...for now. There will be no feeding of the tank but will monitor the NH3 very closely.

 

Update 27-Apr-2010

Main Tank: Fry guys swimming all over the place from just a few days old to three weeks old. Chomping at the bit to do a water change but don't want to mess with anything at this time. Topped off with 1g fresh water.

Fry Tank: 50% water change and ready to go for next round.

Holding Tank: Delayed water change as I was running out of time. Topped off tank with 2.5g fresh water. Annnnnnd....found lots of eggs in here. Not sure but they look like they will be hatching any time now. If not for that, I would move some over.

Here's a couple shots from today: These guys are approaching the three week mark.




And here's a nice group shot. Papa on the left, mama in the middle and another female to the right. Look closely to right of papa oto...you'll find a wee one there. That little guy is just a couple days old.


That makes two males and two females in the main tank.

 

Yep...at least only after I was looking at the photo.

They were on the side of the tank so I just taking the camera between two tanks and snapping "guessing" pictures. Luckily one of them turned out.

 

Update 28-Apr-2010

Quick update as I have a bit to do before the hockey game tonight. Rock the Red!

Holding Tank: Checked this on first since I knew there were eggs that were going to be hatching today. Readily found (6) freshly hatched wigglers. Too much a jungle to see if any others are about. Especially if any are laid in the huge Java Fern. I would never know.

Main Tank: No eggs spotted but decided to see how many fry guys I could count. So ranging from a few days old to my magic three week mark, I counted upwards of (50) in here. <knocks on wood>. Still holding off on any water changes on the tank at this time. The older fry are really working on the excess food that is sitting at the bottom which is why I'm leaving it.

I will do water tests today in leiu of any regular maintence.

Blanching some fresh zucchini as I type. Will add some fresh slices to the tanks later even though there is an abundance of food already in them.

 

After quite a bit of searching and finding a decent price...I am finally, finally acquiring some O. Cocama. I just ordered (5) of the little guys. Shipping is the kicker but had to do it as couldn't find any one anywhere close to get them. Should be here on Friday. Going through the final prep of their future tank.

I did a last minute audible and chose the 10g with the Flourite substrate over the SMS. It's been aging a lot longer. And since the guys in the holding tank are breeding with the sand substrate, I don't think this will be much an issue. However, if I locate my O. Flexilis, then I will do the tank switcharoo.

 

Update 29-Apr-2010

All looks well today:

Main Tank: Activity and fry visibility remains high. I will have to do a wc tomorrow. Just not liking the condition. The wee ones have discovered the zucchini and life is good...or at least they are acting like it is. ;o)

Holding Tank: Counted (13) wigglers on the glass today. No maintenance scheduled at this time.

New tank will be referred as the Cocama tank. Which as I just learned will not arrive tomorrow as planned. Vendor states that post office said delivery would be two days and not over night. They only included a single 24hr heat pack. So now it will be sometime next week. This will however, allow me to do a little more scaping. I have crypts thinned and sorted. Will be adding/rescaping more tomorrow. Will put up final specs of the tank once complete.

 

Update 01-May-2010

Getting ready to head out to the race. Quick morning check of things and all looks well.

Over in the main tank, the fry are growing very nicely and still remain extremely active. Keeping fingers crossed that this batch will yield quite a few.

Was able to find a few wigglers in the holding tank. Saw a couple of them already hitting the zucchini.

Making another different swing in the O. Cocama tank. This may not be permanent but will aid in the introduction of them to thier new home. I found a piece of Maylasian driftwood that I wasn't using. Bigger than I want but will comfortably fit in the 10g. I will also be adding a piece of slate. With these and the placement of the crypts, this will provide nice spots for them. There is no pattern for the flora so it will be mismatched at this time as well.

Will be adding them tomorrow and adjusting the flora. Will be all set and get my initial readings and other info posted.

 

Update 02-May-2010

Kind of a slow start today. Just now getting around to working on the tanks. Go downstairs and the first thing I wanted to check on were the fry in the holding tank. Seeing some of the adults swimming around, thinking nothing of it. Spot a couple fry. Things are doing pretty well. Then a female comes swimming up from behind the java fern and has (4) males tagging along. She stop on a dwarf sag and the males pounce! It was just amazing to watch this. The guys were all over her. A spawn was occuring right in front of me. Didn't have the camera at the moment and didn't want to make any sudden moves to distract them.

So there I sat in front of the tank for a good 20 minutes watching all this activity all over the place. Saw where she had laid a few eggs on a java fernlet (this one will be moved to the fry tank). Found more eggs on the sags. I then decided that I needed the camera. Got the camera and came back down and the spawn was still going on. They would do their thing and then take a small break and back at it. Was able to snap some shots and video. Going through them now to see how well they turned out.

Shot a couple videos over in the main tank as well. Stand by while I check them out.

 

Ok...first off...I'm not a peeping tom...I'm scientist. The video you are about to see is in the name of research. ;o)

Luckily it's not too good. This is best one of the spawn. I may upload another one but again, not a good as this one. You'll see the poor little gal literally being hounded by the four males.

[youtube]hUvbEXdM_Ow[/youtube]

 

lol...I managed to find about a dozen eggs in the sags and a few at the front of the fern. A majority of the "action" was in the back side of the fern and the sag that is shown in the video. I almost feel bad for the gal as them boys just would not leave her be. ;o)