Found my little sucker fish dead

[COM]

I'm not overstocked and I don't have a fish waste issue in my tank. I have a very powerful filter and I clean my gravel properly. I do have a lot of sunlight everywhere in my home. When I first set up the tank I had it exposed to too much direct sunlight. I have recently purchased a "blinder" to surround it and reduce the light and reduced the number of hours that I am lighting the tank to about 9 hours. Unfortunately, my municipal water is sourced from Lake Erie (full of algae) and the processing that is done to it doesn't get all of the algae out. I have been in places in the area where you can see a bloom even on things like leaky faucets.

[trashion]

Okay! I'm just saying that you are in my opinion, and even if you don't have a measurable nitrogenous waste issue, the algae could be sucking it up. I found that lighting my tank for only 8 hours works best for the least amount of algae.

[Knight~Ryder]

The algae in my tank is still brown. The tank was really clean when I had the fish in there, now that the otos died, the brown algae came back so fast.

[audzter]

its in your water. and to much sunlight

[trashion]

Could be a nitrate spike. The otos probably died, ammonia and nitrite spiked, and then the nitrate could have spiked. Excess nitrate=brown algae, AKA diatoms.

[Knight~Ryder]

Well, I went out and got 2 more ottos. I didn't bother to clean the glass so that they had plenty of brown diatoms to eat.

These guys look a little more healthier then the last two I had. Their tummies are bigger and rounder, and boy are they active!

I found some great info on these guys! http://www.otocinclus.com/ Be sure to check that out!

At first the cherry barbs nipped a tad at these guys, but soon let off.
So all is well for now. Hope they will last over a month.

[mikeingeorgia]

I have 3 in one 29g and 1 in another 29g. They've all been in there about 2 yrs so living in groups isn't necessary. Every so often I'll get to wondering whether or not all 3 are still in the 1 tank but then they all turn up. The one that's by itself is the biggest, as it gets to eat all the algae. For their size they do produce a lot of "waste" by continually digesting algae. This is very apparent if you put them into a quarantine tank with no substrate like I do. Typically, I have the most trouble with them when I first bring them home. They either "drop like ottos" in the first couple of days or live for years. Had they been healthy up to the point of putting in the algae wafer? What kind of wafer did you put in? Had you recently performed a water change on the tank, hence, changed the water parameters? They do seem somewhat delicate but for a tank with smaller tankmates like tetras there is no substitute. Mike