Jump to content

Otocinclus and shrimp babies - truth or rumour?


Finley

Recommended Posts

I'm keen to hear from anyone who has first hand experience of keeping correctly identified Otocinclus catfish with shrimp. 

There's a widespread belief, often repeated, that Otocinclus leave shrimp alone and are safe to keep in the same tank.

There are also stories of Otocinclus chowing down on shrimplets, and even in one case on adults, so now that belief is also being repeated.

There are many cases of Otocinclus being confused with Siamese Algae Eaters and other similar looking fish.

I want to get to the truth. Can anyone who has ever kept definite Otocinclus with shrimp please tell me your experiences and observations?


BTW, for ID...

These are Otocinclus, with the sucker mouth and spot on the tail root: 
Otocinclus_hoppei.jpg
otocinclus-catfish-banana-plant-leaf.jpg

These are not:
siamese-algae-eater.jpg

algae-eater.jpg

chineseAlgaeEater3.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always had otocinclus in my shrimp tanks and I never seen them eat any shrimp or shrimplet. They eat the shrimp foods and the dried blackworms. I also have l397s with my crs and I still see growth in the crs population. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to have otocinclus (no idea which exact species but probably a common one since they came from a local petshop) and the shrimp numbers never seemed to decrease. The otos may have snacked on the occasional dead shrimp or even a shed shell but I never saw them ever so much as look at snacking on a shrimp or shrimplet. I also have a whiptail (possibly L06) who doesn't seem to care one bit about eating shrimp. Even more surprising it appears so far that even my Dwarf Chain loaches are shrimp safe, and my Khuli loaches have already proved they are shrimp safe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Similar experiences with my Otos and shrimp here.

The Otos show no sign of eating shrimplets or the adults.

I have seen shrimplets crawling on the head of one of my Oto, and the fish just sat there without moving.

I moved to get a camera, but my movement spooked the Oto, and the photo opportunity was missed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Never had problem keeping shrimps and otos together

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Join Our Community!

    Register today, ask questions and share your shrimp and fish tank experiences with us!

  • Must Read SKF Articles

  • Posts

    • beanbag
      Update to say that after a few gravel vacs, front wall scrub, moss / floating plant trim, that the condition seems to have improved.  My current theory is that it is due to waste / debris management, where "stuff" like that brown mulm accumulates in the substrate and behind the HMF filters.  Maybe some tanks can somehow deal with it, but mine can't.  Also another experienced shrimper suggested that maybe those "shell bugs" don't just live on the shrimps but also in this debris.  Maybe this is the reason some tanks fail due to "old tank syndrome" where all they need is a good gravel vac? Also, I am guessing that plant trim helps too because now more of the nutrients and light go into growing algae instead of more plants? Well anyway for this tank I will try weekly water change and monthly gravel vac / plant trim.  For my next tank, I'm thinking of something like an under-gravel system where this mulm can fall down and I vac it out.
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Good to have an update and good to hear you are getting shrimplets, so hopefully your colony will continue and you may not get to the point where you have to cull some to stop over population. These type of shrimp only live 12 - 18 months so the adult deaths may be natural? If you have the time I would do weekly 25% water changes, adding the new water via a drip system and do some vacuuming clean of the substrate each week, even if only a different bit each week! See if that helps in a few months and if it does then stick with that regime? It should help reduce any build-ups that may be occuring!
    • beanbag
      Hello again, much belated update: The tank still has "cycles" of 1-2 month "good streaks" where everybody seems to be doing well, and then a bad streak where the short antenna problem shows up again, and a shrimp dies once every few days.  I am not sure what causes things to go bad, but usually over the course of a few days I will start to see more shrimp quietly standing on the HMF filter, and so I know something is wrong.  Since I am not "doing anything" besides the regular 1-2 week water changes, I just assume that something bad is building up.  Here's a list of things that I've tried that are supposed to be "can't hurt" but didn't prevent the problem either: Dose every other day with Shrimp Fit (very small dose, and the shrimp seem to like it) Sotching Oxydator Seachem Purigen to keep the nitrates lower Keeping the pH below 5.5 with peat Things that I don't do often, so could possibly "reset" the tank back to a good streak, are gravel vac and plant trim, so maybe time to try those again. One other problem I used to have was that sometimes a shrimp would suddenly stop eating with a full or partially full digestive tract that doesn't clear out, and then the shrimp will die within a few days.  I suspected it was one of the foods in my rotation - Shrimp Nature Infection, which contains a bunch of herbal plant things.  I've had this in my food rotation for a few years now and generally didn't seem to cause problems, but I removed it from the rotation anyway.  I don't have a lot of adult Golden Bees at this point so I can't really tell if it worked or not. Overall the tank is not too bad - during the good streaks occasionally a shrimp will get berried and hatch babies with a 33-50% survival rate.  So while there are fewer adults now, there are also a bunch of babies roaming around.  I guess this tank will stagger on, but I really do need to take the time to start up a new tank.  (or figure out the problem)
    • jayc
      If that is the offspring, then the parents are unlikely to be PRL. I tend to agree with you. There are very few PRLs in Australia. And any that claim to be needs to show proof. PRL genes have to start as PRL. CRS that breed true after x generations doesn't turn it into a PRL. Neither can a Taiwan bee shrimp turn into a PRL despite how ever many generations. I've never seen a PRL with that sort of red colour. I have on Red Wines and Red Shadows - Taiwan bee shrimps. So somewhere down the line one of your shrimp might have been mixed with Taiwan bees and is no longer PRL. It just tanks one shrimp to mess up the genes of a whole colony. 
    • sdlTBfanUK
      Sorry, missed this one somehow! The PRL look fantastic and the odd ones look part PRL and part Red wine/Red shadow in the colour. They are still very beautiful but ideally should be seperated to help keep the PRL clean if you can do that.  Nice clear photos!
×
×
  • Create New...