# Ottos eating Hygrophila



## Sacha (19 Dec 2014)

I have just noticed there are small holes in my hygrophila (it's being eaten).
The only possible culprits are the ottos.
Does this mean they're starving? 
How can I feed them, to stop them resorting to eating the plants? 
They've ignored all the food I've put in up to now.


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## KarthikC (19 Dec 2014)

Otos hardly even eat Algae IMO. The plants must be facing some nutrient deficiency? I feed my otos cucumbers and they go after the blood worms and other stuff that is dropped in for their tank mates. 

Cheers,

Karthik


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## Sacha (19 Dec 2014)

No nutrient deficiency. The ottos are eating them.


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## Sacha (19 Dec 2014)

In fact i am watching one of them chomp on a leaf right now. And yes, the leaf is very healthy


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## Crossocheilus (19 Dec 2014)

After a few attempts mine got the idea and started to eat the slices of blanched courgette I put in.


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## KarthikC (19 Dec 2014)

Sacha said:


> In fact i am watching one of them chomp on a leaf right now. And yes, the leaf is very healthy


 
Wow.. that's something new.. Never came across Otos doing that in my tanks. Have you been feeding them anything till now?


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## Sacha (20 Dec 2014)

Yes I tried feeding them algae wafers, courgette, cucumber etc. They didn't know what it was. 

They ignore all the other food that goes in the tank e.g. bloodworm, brine shrimp, daphnia, tubifex, rotifers, cyclops, red plankton..........


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## tim (20 Dec 2014)

The only food I've been able to get mine to eat is blanched nettle or jbl novo prawn containing nettle.


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## Michael W (20 Dec 2014)

Otos can be picky eaters, the only visable algae that I see them take on are diatoms, they pretty much as far as I could see leave the other types of algae alone.

Mine would readily have courgettes though. Most of the time, you just have to constantly put the vege in until they take 'em. I have also tried carrots before for my shrimps and the Otos would try them too, they don't stay there and eat but they constantly came back to it to graze.


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## sonicninja (20 Dec 2014)

I agree, mine aren't bothered by algae wafers. I haven't specifically fed them in about 4 months. They like cucumber but they eat that sporadically. 
I can't remember Sacha but do you have wood in your tank? Mine spend 90% of their time feeding off what's on that.


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## Sacha (20 Dec 2014)

Yeah I have wood with Java fern and Fissidens.


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## Sacha (20 Dec 2014)

How do you prepare the courgette for feeding? Boil it?


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## KarthikC (20 Dec 2014)

My otos eat the regular cucumber that I "hang" on to the sides of the tank. I use plastic clips to hang it there and take it out the next day.  

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/k85c/16036955596/

Couldn't upload a pic as I'm travelling,sorry. 

Cheers,

Karthik 


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## Sacha (20 Dec 2014)

You don't prepare it at all, just chuck it in?


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## KarthikC (20 Dec 2014)

Yeah. Other than washing the cucumber, nothing else. Been feeding it to them from about a year now. They also eat blood worms sometime. I've got a video of them chewing on blood worms. Will post it sometime next week as I'm travelling. 

Cheers,

Karthik 


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## drodgers (20 Dec 2014)

Sacha said:


> I have just noticed there are small holes in my hygrophila (it's being eaten).
> The only possible culprits are the ottos.
> Does this mean they're starving?
> How can I feed them, to stop them resorting to eating the plants?
> They've ignored all the food I've put in up to now.


Can you post a picture Ive been having a similar problem and cant decide on the culprit .


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## Michael W (20 Dec 2014)

You can boil it or chuck the courgette in after chopping it. Boiling it would mean you can't leave it in the tank as long as you could without boiling though. I'm inclined to go for courgette rather than cucumber due to more nutrients.


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## alto (24 Dec 2014)

Sacha said:


> Yes I tried feeding them algae wafers, courgette, cucumber etc. They didn't know what it was.
> 
> They ignore all the other food that goes in the tank e.g. bloodworm, brine shrimp, daphnia, tubifex, rotifers, cyclops, red plankton..........


I've a suspicion that it's species (or possibly learned) behavior, I recently added newly imported Otos (_whatever_ species) - tank 1, seems there's enough algae etc, tank 2, they decimated the soft leaves of Tropica's Nymphoides hydrophylla 'Taiwan' - the (still) emerse growth was obviously "eaten" (few ragged edges remain for each leaf) immediately after otos were added to the tank.
The otos seem to spend most of their time on the glass,wood etc now but it'll be interesting to see if plant can actually get any growth.


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## Brian Murphy (11 Jan 2015)

Yeah they do the same to my hydrophillia aswell when it reaches a certain level of growth, just as it is starting to bush out. Just bought 4 SAE but 3 died after a couple of days but gonna get some more. They might be a better alternative to ottos ?


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## Mick.Dk (12 Jan 2015)

Ramshorns, Oto's, cherries and Amano have been eating leaves off Nymph. hyd. when just planted in my testing of the plant, too.
Every time it has been due to the emergent leaves not adapting well - the little Bast...'s can smell a decaying leaf long before we see it    and then go for it. Very effective control-team, actually.
The plants have allways been able to produce new, adapted leaves, though, thanks to the incredible fast growt-rate of this plant............and these were left untouched......


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## Another Phil (12 Jan 2015)

Hi Sacha,

Several species of barbs and also USD catfish I had loved frozen peas and sweetcorn squeezed out of their skins when I cooked them for us. When I had a large Pleco it would eat blanched nettles and dandelion leaves (I poured a kettle of boiling water on them until they went limp). Worth a try.
phil


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## sciencefiction (12 Jun 2015)

It's an old thread but thought I'd post a thread I came across recently. Ottos eating hydro...It's not in English but with google translate one can get the whole story. The pictures say it all anyway.

http://www.bingo-ev.de/~kh3515/hygrophila.html

As for fish food that ottos eat, they love spirulina sticks and it's the only fish food I've ever seen mine go for. I get mine from ta-aquaculture. And I think my ottos gorge themselves on some hydrophila too. I often see munched leaves.

On another note, my bristlenose pleco loves amazon swords. He thins the leaves nicely until they are transparent.   He's well fed otherwise. Gets his own food daily and I see him eat it too.
I mean if a fish would eat stuff like spinach, lettuce, etc...why wouldn't they eat some tasty hydrophila or amazon swords....They wouldn't make a difference as long as it's edible to them.
I might as well try a salad of these myself, lol.


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## xim (12 Jun 2015)

Sacha said:


> Yes I tried feeding them algae wafers, courgette, cucumber etc. They didn't know what it was.
> 
> They ignore all the other food that goes in the tank e.g. bloodworm, brine shrimp, daphnia, tubifex, rotifers, cyclops, red plankton..........



All of my Oto cats eat the same food as Corie cats (NLS Surface Feeder, ADA AP-2, Hikari Sinking Wafers). 
A new Oto will eventually adapt to eat the food within a few months (yes it takes quite long), IME.


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## sciencefiction (12 Jun 2015)

I've fed mine NLS because that's basically what I feed as a staple, although not the "surface feeder" type  and hikari sinking wafers too, and my ottos don't touch that. I don't think they are easily trained on those but like any other fish it depends on the environment and other tank mates.


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## xim (13 Jun 2015)

sciencefiction said:


> I've fed mine NLS because that's basically what I feed as a staple, although not the "surface feeder" type



I figure they (my bottom feeders) might want to taste it.


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