Otocinclus or better known as oto is a type of small-sized catfish that can help you to keep your aquarium algae growth in check. Unlike normal catfish, they only grow up to 4cm in length and hence, this will pose less competition in terms of food, space and oxygen with your main community fish. Since it also does a good job in cleaning up your aquarium, this sucker mouth is highly sought after to be included as part of any community aquarium.Otos rarely come out during daytime and during this period they will become inactive and usually gone into hiding among the plants. Unlike certain species of sucker mouth, which can be very territorial even among its own kind, otocinclus will live in groups without showing aggression and I’ve seen before a 55 gallon community aquarium house at least 3 to 4 of these small little cleaner fish. They can be mixed with other tropical freshwater fish that are non-aggressive like neon tetra, danios, platy, swordtail and guppy. However, goldfish is not an option here, first because both species have different requirements in terms of best water temperature with goldfish being a coldwater species while otos belongs to the tropical groups of fish. Second, mixing otos with goldfish is also a bad idea since they can feed off the slime on the goldfish body causing raised scales and open wound which will lead to introduction of disease.
Otocinclus catfish diet includes normal fish foods, which are sinking type. Occasionally you can also give them algae wafers which they really love. However, try not to leave behind a lot of uneaten food because these little fellas will actually do an excellent job of finishing off whatever waste that is left until their stomach become bloated. Prolonged condition is not good for their health because there are theories around that point to overfeeding which can increase their susceptibility to bacterial infection leading to dropsy, an aquarium fish disease that are usually lethal.
Other catfish family members: Albino Corydoras Catfish
Related topics: Housing your oto catfish in unique aquarium.
