The Oto Journal

06/20: Lot of wigglers around this morn. Had to leave this morn so I snapped some quick shots:

Hatching in progress with close supervision:


Here's two new wigglers. So hard to snap a good pic when they are this small:


Another newbie:


Here's one of the juvies:


Here's a second. There are three juvies in here. The biggest one was to active to get a pic.

 

06/25: Checked on the guys today. Getting ready to do another water change. At initial look, all appears to be just fine. Mom and Dad are hanging out together again. Will be on the watch for eggs.

As for babies, I counted (8). Getting bigger every day. All are coloring up. I only saw two that are pretty small/newish. Still have the (3) juvies and (3) others that approaching juvy status.

Working on my other tanks at the moment so can't finish the plants. Which seems to be a good thing. Most of the babies are really working over the crypt jungle.

Quit a few yellow shrimp in there as well. Need to start looking into thining the herd.

 

Hard to say from which batch which ones have made it. I have one large juvy and two smaller sized juvies. Behind these three, I have three more that have colored up nicely and growing in size. Then there are the two younger ones who are just now starting to show color.

I think there are a few more in there but was hard to get an accurate count after water change.

 

Thx. It's been a real fun project. I hope it continues for quite some time. I've had quite a few people inquiring about zebra oto's. If I can find a donor tank, I may just give it a whirl.

 

06/27: All appears to be doing well in the Oto tank. Lots of babies swimming around. Was hard to get an accurate count. I did manage to fire off some pics. Here's the best ones from today:

Mom and a baby muching a zuc:


Let's all gather around the zuc:


A yellow shrimp just observing it all:

 

07/01: Checked on my babies today. All is well. Alot of activity. Didn't bother counting today. Zuchini's are dissapearing fast! Between the Oto's and the shrimps...they all have full bellies.

On the plus side....I put in 4 briggs the other day. Babies wasted no time workin over the shells. And wouldn't ya know it...I didn't have the camera at that time to catch it. A couple of them had 2-3 babies on the shells.

Getting ready to add more zuc and recharge Co2. I have two more jungles to take care of then I get the plants in the Oto tank squared away again.

 

07/07: Still not a whole lot of time to do much unfortunately. I did get home in time to get a peek in the tank. Lights went out shortly after I got home. I didn't spot any new eggs or wigglers. Hopefully they just need a break. I did find that my Co2 wasn't working so had to change bottles. Still need to do a water test. I think the parameters have dropped since no Co2.

On the baby front, I did see about (6) juvies around. That's a good sign at least. I'll be able to more tomorrow as I will have a short day.

 

07/13: Still trying to get back on task here. Checked in on them today. All looks good for now as far as what is existing in here. Still haven't seen any new eggs or wigglers. <sniff> I hope this isn't the end but will continue to follow the journey of the juvies for now.

Here's some shots from today: Still have to work on my photo skills. Some are blurry.

Here's the big guy:


One of the younger juvies:


Here's mom and dad:


Bonus shots:

Donut anyone?


Party at the zuc:

 

Alas..no eggs. But will be patient. Tank may be a bit on the crowded side with the yellows now. We'll see. Will try and get a water test today and see where my numbers are.

 

07/15: Finally got in there and pretty much finished up the trim. I would up pulling two big wads of plants to seperate and trim. Will add a couple more back in but the rest will have to go.

Did a water test as well:

Temp: 78 slight jump from where I want it. Need to work on this.
PH: ~ 7.4
NO3: 40
NO2: 0
NH3: 0
GH: 12
KH: 7

As for the occupants, all is doing well. I saw both parents and all babies. All snails active as well. Dropped in two pinches of flake food and crushed up (3) small algae waffers. Prepping zucchini as I type.

I snapped some shots as well. Getting ready to check them and see how they turned out.

 

Here's some photo's from today's progess:

Trim in Progess...I took it this way to also show my DIY Co2 setup:


How bout some baby pics...or juvies if you will:




Here's a little one haning out with the big guy:


And the end product of today's work: