Otocinclus Catfish

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got_nailed

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Mar 26, 2004
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I’m thinking about making an order for 10 to 15 Otocinclus Catfish. But I want to use some else brain before I make the order.

Tank setup.
75 gallon heavy plated tank
kh 9 or 161.1ppm
gh 12 or 214.8ppm
ph 7.0
12 Tetras
Snails

Magnum 350
Fluval 204 – 25 watt UV (UV runs at night)
Co2 reactor


I do get some algae from time to time but it normally doses not get to bad (just got over green water 3 weeks ago). I do know that I should put new fish into a quarantine tank but I was thinking of just putting them into the 75 gallon straight out. I can set up a 20 long for a Q tank and plant it for them if needed. I have read that they are sensitive to water changes and to be careful when adding them to a tank.

Are catfish at high risk for diseases? If so witch ones?
How many would you get?
Do you think my water would be too hard for them?
 
Normally otos are labeled as hard to acclimatize. Some times these fish are caught using poison in the water, so they are normally overstressed and weakened. To avoid any problems, set up the 20 long QT with the exact conditions they are going to meet in the main tank.

Another option would be to put them inmediately in your main tank, but they could carry some disease, and worse, a dead oto in a heavily planted tank can easily be forgotten.
 
I really like otto's but if your have only occasional algae, I'm not sure they're your best bet. They are strictly vegetarian and will starve if the algae is sporadic and not supplemented. Seeing that you already have snails, (# and species not stated). You might do better allowing the snails to handle the algae, and get a school of 6- 10 cories to patrol the bottom.

As for your other questions, "catfish" covers a lot of species. To speak in very general terms I would say no they are not prone to diseases. Some of the scaleless catfish (ie Pimelodus pictus ) may be more susceptible to ich and sensative to medications. Being bottom dwellers they are also often in contact with the worst part of a poorly maintained tank, but I wouldn't generalize catfish as being prone to disease. Aside from some of the most popular species it may be fair to say that a higher percentage of catfish are wild caught, compared to other groups of fish. This can make acclimating them a bit more difficult. As for how many that depends on species, and do your research as many can get quite large, thus not suitable for a "planted / tetra" tank. Though not soft, I would expect most species to acclimate to your water hardness. If the tetras can handle it, I don't know of any cats that wouldn't.
 
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