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Ottocinclus, Amano shrimp - What to feed

John44

John44

Member
Joined
1 Jul 2016
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104
Location
London
Hi

I hope to be adding some Ottocinclus and Amano shrimp to my tank shortly - is there a recommended food for these guys ?

Regards
John B
 
Hi all,
John44 said:
I hope to be adding some Ottocinclus and Amano shrimp to my tank shortly - is there a recommended food for these guys ?
Click to expand...
I feed shrimps and Otocinclus mainly with vegetables, Red pepper, Cucumber, Sweet Potato, Courgette etc.

I don't blanch any of them, and I fix them (with an elastic band) to a vertical bamboo cane.

cheers Darrel
 
If you haven't heard of Repashy superfoods check them out. Its a gel based food that you make up yourself from powder. I use soilent green because its ingredients are the best in my opinion.
 
I second repashy gel foods for ottocinclus, I have used supergreen rather than soylent green but I've read that either will work. Some people definitely believe the extra protein in soylent green is beneficial for ottocinclus but others seem to disagree. I've only used supergreen which is totally vegan myself but I have seen ottos eat freeze dried tubifex and frozen baby brine shrimp. Couldn't say whether this is natural healthy behaviour for them or not. You can also make your own powder-gel premix from things like stinging nettles to save money, there's a recipe here https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=36149 that you could experiment with.
http://www.repashy.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=42
For amanos I generally just let them eat algae but mine love bee pollen above all else. This seems to be growing more popular as a 'supplement' for shrimps but is totally unecessary, especially for amanos. Much cheaper if you buy in larger quantitites rather than tiny 100g portions. You would want to be careful to buy pollen that hasn't been contaminated by pesticides.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/201460387322?lpid=122&chn=ps&adgroupid=36084540643&rlsatarget=pla-271887794596&adtype=pla&poi=&googleloc=1007326&device=c&campaignid=698615505&crdt=0
One other food source I don't see mentioned here that I've seen people discussing as a good food for fussy ottos is dried seaweed like this
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sushi-Nori-Seaweed-Sheets-Perfect/dp/B002A8HWX8
Also drip acclimate the ottos very slowly, you will regret it if you don't.
 
Interestingly I do not add specific food for Otto's, they seem to have doubled in size since adding them nearly a year ago, they survive on what is in the tank. I guess they live on what ever algae is in the tank. They seem to be none the worse for it.
 
how big a tank do you keep them in papa cee? I've never tried letting them just forage for their own food but I'm curious about how much space is required to provide the amount of algae and 'aufwuchs' they need to thrive. I suppose surface area available for grazing is more important than volume.
 
Hi Louis

The tank is approx. 200 litres, heavily planted and is not sterilely clean of algae, more a natural jungle seen in the link below

https://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/t5-light-bulb-changes.47957/#post-471927

They mainly tend to be seen grazing on the tank glass and some of the plants in the foreground, but always together in the same area. As you mentioned it is all about a balance, as with humans if there is a food famine then healthy growth is always going to be impaired. If you scrub your tank clean and have no visible algae I would supplement it with some form of algae wafer or vegetable matter. Making sure you don't leave the later in too long to foul the water due to decay.

My experience with Otto's has been different and it is about getting good quality from the fish shop, my local shop gets them from Colombia and he refuses to sell them for a couple of weeks as they are often in poor shape when first in, check when your shop gets them and when they start selling them, if they look thin and not too well be prepared to possibly lose some when you get them home,
 
I have a little school of about of +/- 7 otot's and about the same amount of amano's in a net 48 litre tank next to 7 pygmaea corys and 15 tetras.. Also rarely throw anything in especialy for the otos and shrimps. When i eat myself some courgette or cucumber i sometimes throw a piece in and take it out hours later still untouched. But i grind down sera vipa chips and spirulina tabs, mix it and feed the fish with this. When its grinded to powder it is dispersed all over the tank and feed much less than if i would use complete tabs. I feed daily 1/4 vipa chip mixed with 1/4 spirulina tab, some parts sink immediately and some parts float for a while before it sinks.. So actualy enough food ends up in the substrate what the tetras don't catch. I notice this with the pygmaea corys, they wake up and get active 3 seconds after the first particle hits the substrate and start feesting and diggin all together about the same time. The shrimps love to run off with the larger grains of vipa chip, this is realy their favorite.

The tank and all the fish in it are about 2 years around now.

Have another 110 litre low tech tank started with 30 cherries and some amanos, gets the same treat and nothing extra for the shrimps.. Now after a year the cherry population at least tripled and keeps growing, amanos are still around. Don't ask me what they are eating next to the bits i feed and i feed very little, i can't realy see it but they constantly are feesting on something obviously and multiplying like rabbits. One day i noticed a fish not doing so well it still was alive when i went to bed.. The next morning i found a it's carcass, or what was left of it.. That must have been a special treat for them it was stripped to the bone with in hours. I also have a pretty low snail population all tho i have ramshorn, common pond snail and Melanoides tuberculata (all 3 potential pests) and i find plenty empty little snail shells in the substrate, i do not know for sure but i suspect the shrimps and fish keeping also this population in check.

I guess keeping them hungry makes them work harder cleaning your tank and keep the (eco) circle round... :thumbup:
 
I have no shrimps,but have 4 ottos.Tried most vegetables and favourite seems to be a slice of plain o cucumber on a
Veggie clip.
Cheers Dave.
 
I normally have a bit of courgette in there for mine. The otos are all over it most of the time but the shrimp only seem bother with it occasionally. The amanos do seem to go for algae wafers which the Otos ignore.

I am still trying to find the best way of doing this. If I put it in raw they don't seem to touch it until it has been in there a very long time and started to go soft, if I stick it in the microwave for 30 or 60 seconds they seem to start on it quicker but they still seem to like it best when it is really soft. I am wary of leaving it in there that long though...

How long do people leave veg in and how big a piece do they put in?
 
[QUOTE="jameson_uk, post: 477243, member:

How long do people leave veg in and how big a piece do they put in?[/QUOTE]

I leave my courgette for a couple of days all the other fish seem to finish it off.. my otto hardly get a sniff. Roughly 2'' x 1'' on a veggie clip
 
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