The Oto Journal

Update 03-May-2010

Quick update while I fire up the grill.

Doing a 10% water change in the main tank at the moment. Still using the drip method to add the new water. Seem to be getting good results here lately doing it this way. Either that or I'm getting lucky. Fry count and activity remains high. I'm not sure how many eggs were laid while I was gone but I can say that at just over a week, there still remains quite a few in here. It's interesting as you can see the difference in the age groups from 1 to 4 weeks. Only frags of zuc remain. Preping new as well as the new food diet/routine that I do now. This will be the first feeding since returning. Tells you how much gunk was in there. Surprisingly though...the water parms remained consistant. Didn't fluctuate at all. Guess the plants enjoyed it.

Over in the holding tank, I was able to find a few more eggs laid after yesterday. Also counted (6) fry in this tank. Moved over (3) eggs to the hatching/fry tank.

Which now brings us to the fry tank. I'm not sure I will officially call this a test as the egg count is only (3). With such a low number, won't really have much to compare. With that said....pH is sitting nicely at 6.2. One minor adjustment I made to this tank was to add a very small amount of crushed coral. This is how I will regulate the pH. I've started out with a very thin layer at the bottom of a milk jug lid. I'll continue to test daily over the next week to see if I need to adjust it down any. The target of this tank is no more than 6.6.

Confirmed with vendor today that the O. Cocama will ship tomorrow for Thursday arrival.

 

One more video to get you through the night.

Here's one that shows the wee one snarfing a zucchini.

[youtube]yi0RrtAWOoE[/youtube]

 

Update 04-Apr-2010

Quick update on the hatching today. Let's see if I can start simplifying this a bit.

Main: Added 1g of fresh water. Still visibly counted over (50) fry guys in here. Being very careful of what goes on in here as this is the highest brood to date. A piece of zucchini has floated to the top and I had to rescue (4) fry from the top. Otherwise, they would have been trapped as they were on the topside of it.

Holding: (need a better name for this tank) Maybe I'll hold a contest. ;o) Found a few of the new hatchlings and a few of the older fry. Will be going on a pond snail raid soon.

Fry Tank: Of the (3) eggs moved over, I found (2) wigglers today.

OC: Final preps to the tank will be completed tomorrow. Tried to get confirmation from the vendor that they actually shipped today. Haven't heard back as yet.

 

Update 11-May-2010

Kind of quiet the past few days. Nothing much going on. 10% water changes in the Vittatus and Cocama tanks. No new eggs, but mama Oto showing very nicely.

The Cocama's are still progressing and getting more comfortable with their home.

20% water change in the holding tank. Went on a pond snail raid as well. Thinned the herd quite a bit.

Still have (2) fry over in the fry tank. That's still promising considering that there were only (3) eggs moved over that latest round.

Renewing the CO2 bottles on all the tanks. (2) of them were completely spent. The others are still producing but won't last much longer as the jell-o is almost gone. Using the rice seems to have produced much better results.

Fresh zucchini added to all tanks.

 

Shot another video just a while ago. Been working on another tank and I went to check on the main tank and just saw a swarm of activity. They were just all over the place.

[youtube]beowqEf8reI[/youtube]

 

Update 18-May-2010

Water changes in all tanks today. Fresh zucchini added and a couple tanks I'm trying sweet potato in to see what they think.

Over in the main tank, I tried a new powdered based food. I'd have to say it got pretty good results wouldn't you:


The Cocama's are doing really well. Being very active and eating nicely.

Continuing with my snail raids as I go.

 

Update 19-May-2010

Came home today and found the Cocama tank cloudy. Interesting. Not sure if it was/is the sweet potato or not. The other tanks with the sweet potato though aren't cloudy. Hmmmm......I originally took it out but then I put it back in for now. I'm finding that it disentigrates easily. May not use it much after seeing this.

20% water change. Found the filter was pretty well clogged up too. Had to do a cleaning on it as well....brush out the tubes and squeeze out the sponge. I went ahead and started working on the scape a bit early.

Going to be pulling out alot of plants from some tanks. Just have way too many C. Wendtii and Pontederiifolia.

 

I started doing major rescaping. I'm starting with the holding tank. Pulled out several crypts, small sags and others. Still will be difficult to work with as I will be keeping the huge java fern in there. So I'll work around that. I kept one wendtii and (3) small pontederiifolia. Will be keeping 4-5 of the larger Dwarf Sags, few stems of Bacopa Monneri and L. Repens x. Arcuata. Might do some other things as I go...we'll see.

Over in the Cocama tank, it is clearing up. I doubt it was the SP that caused the cloudiness. I moved it over to another tank and it is fine. I believe it to be the remnants of the new food I was trying out. Now granted it was in the tank for quite a few days so it does make sense.

Fresh zucchini added to all tanks.

 

Update 03-Jun-2010

Been a spell since any updates. Well...not really a whole lot going on at the moment.

Just routine maintenance in all the tanks. Removed one C. Wendtii from the Vittatus tank. Might have to remove a couple more. Since last thinning of the jungle, it has just blown up. Half the tank is Crypts. The two females are just enormous.

I think mama oto is going to split if she doesn't unload soon. I'm thinking I have two variables going on here. The first is the amount of babies in the tank. Just a ton of em in here. Takes me back to last time when there was a large brood. After I moved a majority of them, she dropped over 100 eggs.

The second variable is regarding the outside environment. Now last year at this time, we were running the AC for my father. This kept the environment pretty fresh and cool. Right now, we still haven't turned it on. Room conditions are currently sitting at 74F and nearly 60% humidity. These are higher than normal. I'm going to start by using a couple of fans down there and see if I can get some circulation going and removing some of the humidity. We'll probably be turning the air on soon but in the mean time, I have to come up with something else.

The Cocama's continue to progress well. Pretty active. All look about the same size. Noone standing out just yet. I'm sure hoping that there is at least one male and one female. As it looks now, I might have four males. Youch. I'm contimplating looking to get a few more from another source to ensure I have a mix. We'll see. Still a couple months to go before a positive ID can be made.

That's it for now. Stay tuned.

 

Update 28-June-2010

Well back from holiday and as expected, I wasn't too happy with what I found. We had a different house sitter this time. While overall she did a good job, there were casulties:

The worst tank was the holding tank. I found (4) dead and the state of the tank was bad. The corpses were fuzzed over so they had been there for a spell. To make it worse, we spoke to the person on the phone yesterday while on our way home and was told that all was fine. Immediate 50% water change and stirred up the sand bed. Also had to move the huge java fern out of the way and vac'd around that area. Running (2) air stones in here at the moment to increase the O2 content since the sand was stirred up. Bad, bad, bad.

Next was the Cocama tank. While I didn't lose any of my little guys, the tank is absolutely disgusting. There is crudded up food all over the place. Way too much food fed. Have some fresh water getting ready to do a 25% wc.

Over in the Vittatus breeder, the only casulties were a Brigg and (2) tiger shrimp. Overall state of the tank was ok, but I'm sure the NH3 level was high due to the deaths. Immediate 25% water change. Running air stone currently.

Other tanks had no losses and seemed ok. Working on getting them cleaned up and water changes.

Plants in all tanks grew very well during that spell. Will have to do alot of trimming in the coming days.

On a good note, I was able to find homes for (25) little guys as well today. Wound up selling them for $4/each. They wanted more but had to hold some back to offer to fellow fishy friends out here.

New zucchini prepping now.

 

Update 09-July-2010

Things getting back to normal again. Goodness.

Over in the Vittatus tank, mama still waiting. I will start moving juvies over to the holding tank this weekend. Most are ready to move over. Had to do some trimming yesterday. I think it's time to also cut back the Suesswassertang and Downoi.

Still have a little more work to do in the Cocama and Holding tanks. Will be doing larger than normal water changes this weekend in both these tanks. I may have to spit up the huge Java Fern in the holding tank. It is nearly taking up an entire side. I know they love to hide in there so I may just continue to work around it.

Have several pieces of plants still floating on the top. I may just rid myself of these. I have a habit of trimming and replanting but leaving the other portion floating.

Started dosing ferts again in all tanks. I hadn't done this since returning from holiday. Wanted to ensure the water quality was good before resuming.

 

Update 14-July-2010

Activity levels are once again picking up in the tanks. This is a good sign that things are getting back to normal.

Mom and Pop Oto in the Vittatus tank are hanging out again. The juvies are just swarming all over the place including one of the other adult females. Will be thinning the Crypt jungle in here today. The Suesswassertang and Downoi will also be trimmed. I might add Duckweed hunting as well.

The Cocamas have found themselves a nice spot. On the backside of the heater of all places. Thought for sure they would go for the hidden nook that I created with the driftwood and plants. But...that's what they do...they pick their spots regardless of what we make for them. This tank still needs a lot of help. I don't understand how this guy went sooo bad during the spell that I was gone. I'm going to be looking to remove the Flourite for something different. I knew I should have put them in the SMS tank instead. It was a gamble.

The holding tank is looking a little bare. I have rehomed most of those little fellers. Have a few sub adults left. Prepping tank for next arrival of juvies. I'm still debating on this rather large Java Fern that is in there. I'm toying with the idea of removing it all together and starting with a smaller piece and adding a planting of Trident. I just feel it has outgrown the tank if one can believe that.

I'm soon to be looking into building a rack for 10g tanks. Here I will house some other varieties of Otos and see if I can continue with my experiments.

 

Update: 20-July-2010

Taking a major swing at the Cocama tank to see if I can get this tank to turn around. The history with it is that it just doesn't produce like the others. Plant growth is very slow in comparison. This is using Flourite as a substrate, dry ferts and CO2. It is puzzling me greatly.

I'm starting out with a big vac. This will be a two day process so I don't stress my little guys out too much. They didn't seem to mind day one. Was able to remove quite a bit of gunk and the TDS dropped way down. Didn't think it was all that bad. Original level was just over 120. After first vac, it dropped 30 points.

Will be snail hunting during the reconstruction as well. The scaping will be switched up a bit as well. Moving some plants around and swapping out others.

If this doesn't coax the growth rate any, I will be pulling the substrate in favor of something else. I may just switch with the SMS that is in the O. Flexilis tank (which is currently waiting stocking).

As for the Vittatus, someone must have thrown some happy pills in both tanks. The activity the past couple of days has been really high. I think it's just that the tanks are getting back to where they should be again. Glad to see that.

I think I have decided to remove the big Java Fern and replace it with a small plant as well as add a plantlet of 'Trident'. It's just too big for the tank. So if anyone is looking for a huge JF, let me know.

More water changes and prunning on tap for the next two days. Still haven't moved the juvies over yet with all the work going on. I changed things in mid stride and didn't want to cause them any undue stress. They should be ready to move by the weekend. The holding tank is kind of bare. I have about 12 or so left. Will get a better feel once the fern comes out. Hope they are all doing fine in their new homes.

 

Update 30-July-2010

Transfer begins. Moved just over 20 little ones to the holding tank. Have a few more to go. Will get those tomorrow.

Not a whole lot other than that going on. Still alot of scaping to do in all the tanks.

 

Update 04-Aug-2010

Well this is an update I've been waiting to post. I'm home today waiting on the insurance agent to arrive (weekend washing machine disaster).

Just went to check on the tanks and come up with a plan of attack to do water changes. I didn't get the chance to do them this weekend for being out and then cleanup.

All tanks doing really well. Haven't found any further casulties from my previous tank move. Still have at least (5) more juvies I need to move from the Vittatus breeder.

Checked the holding tank last as usual. Nice discovery. I found a fry on the front glass. Kewlness! Did a quick scan of the tank and found a few more here and there. And just when I was about ready to pull out that big Java Fern too!

I'll do a minor top off of that tank and do regular water changes on the others.