Enough algae?

[idris]

Working on the basis that Amano Shrimp and Otos predominantly algae feeders :
How do you know when you've got enough algae to feed Amano Shrimp and Otos?
... or ...
How do you know when your Amano Shrimp and Otos aren't getting enough food from the algae in your tank?

 

[Bobtastic]

Well... if they eat all the algae you can feed them on algae waffers.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I keep a small piece of vegetable in the tank, any of cucumber, sweet potato, blanched carrot, courgette, blanched green bean, skinned broad bean, skinned peas etc. I fix the cucumber etc well up in the tank, so that the snails don't eat all of it, on a piece of bamboo cane, just a little wider than the fattest Oto. If I'm going to try and wean them onto pellet food, I push some into the veg.

The rate at which the veg. disappears gives you a pretty good measure of how much other food is available, usually when it is gone over-night I have a thin through the tank and remove a fair number of shrimps (I have Red Cherry & "Rainbow" shrimps ). I think one of the problems people have with Otos is not giving them supplementary feed, because there is algae in the tank, but it may well be algae that they can't eat.

cheers Darrel

 

[spyder]

I think one of the problems people have with Otos is not giving them supplementary feed, because there is algae in the tank, but it may well be algae that they can't eat.

cheers Darrel

This is the important point to remember. Consider the algae as a treat. When it comes to algae they eat Diatoms only but will graze on other algaes that are dead. Mine get a wafer every couple of days. I'll have to get em going on some green stuff soon.

 

[idris]

Thanks guys.
Between the shrimp and catfish they've cleared all the diatoms iabutut a week (and there were a lot of diatoms) but still seem to be grazing away on wood, substrate, leaves and glass, though nothing I can see.

Having done some reading I put about 1/2" of broccoli stalk in the tank yesterday (microwaved for about 10sec) they seem reasonably keen on that. Although the Otos are having a pretty regular graze they haven't made an obvious mark on it yet.
I just didn't want them to start to get hungry without me knowing the signs (which I've never even thought about before .)