otocinclus, amano shrimp and HC

[Rabb.D]

helo, need some advice

i have planted some HC which hasn't taken root, everything in my tanks is going well no serious algae yet... but enough algae and dirt on my plants to think that i need some amano shrimp and otocinclus.. my question is... will otocinclus or amano shrimp uproot the HC?

thanks

 

[gmartins]

I think they are generally safe. Make sure amonia is within safe levels for them - I am assuming it is a new set-up.

GM

 

[roadmaster]

If tank is relatively new, I might try the amano shrimp before introducing otocinclus that seem to do a bit better in established tank's of a few months.
Would also note that otocinclus are primarily algae eaters ,and once the algae is gone,,they often slowly die from lack of their primary food.
Some who keep the oto's have sucesss with supplementing vegetable matter in the place of algae but far too many in my view don't readily take to these supplement's for they are still largely wild caught fish that may or may not recognize the vegetable matter that they don't see in the wild.
Just mt two cent's.

 

[Greg's Pea]

I think i've read ~15g per oto to produce enough algae for them but i'm sure this guide is very variable!

Mine are fond of any vegetable matter and algal wafers. They have also developed a liking to spare bloodworm so can get quite tubby.

 

[Radik]

I would consider any shrimp more sensitive than oto specially for ammonia levels and other stuff.
They will not uproot anything, bigger brtistlenoses could though.
I was feeding otos on cucumber, lettuce etc no or algae waffers without issues.

 

[Rabb.D]

thanks for the replies, oto's are doing well... 6 fat on algae wafers... 2 didn't survive the initial 2 days, still not too clear on the amano shrimps uprooting... still haven't introduced any since hc hasn't grown in yet.. tank is 4 weeks old today..

 

[Chubba]

I am in the same boat, I have 2 otos at the moment and thinking to add some amano shrimps later...

 

[Julian]

I bought 5 Otos about 6 months ago for my 50L. I'm now down to 4 but it's more than likely because I moved house and had to set the tank up again.

At the start I didn't feed them that much as there was so much algae, but I soon found out that there's only certain types of algae that they eat. They ate all the algae they could, then then started to eat my shrimps!

When that happened, I started giving them Zucchini/Courgette. I slice it all up and put it in the freezer, then take it out and microwave it for 15 seconds and then put it under a cold tap until its cooled down. I highly recommend you do this else you'll be wasting a lot of money buying new food. You can keep it frozen for about 8 months, if you don't, most courgettes only last a week in the fridge. I feed them about 1 slice per week. Find a way to put it as close to your filter intake as you can because the stuff disintegrates really quickly, you don't want it floating onto plants/rocks.

I too have some HC. Unlike Corys, they don't dig about too much and wont really disturb it. They're quite gentle when they do. They've managed to uproot a bit in the corners of the tank and at the front of the glass where they swim past, but if you trim the HC back a bit it will give them enough room to swim by without touching it.

Hope that helps.