Oto ?

[Giddy012]

My Chinese alge eater does not seem to be doing his job. That and it's starting to act really weird towards the other fish, so needless to say he will be getting donated to the lfs. But I am curiuos about getting an Oto. I heard asolutly nothing bad about them, good cleaners, friendly to other fish, etc. But my concern is, that I've heard they can't have any salt in their tank whats so ever. Is this true? I use about 1tbs per 5 gal. I everyone in the tank seems to prefer it that way. Is there any level of salt an Oto can tallerate without it being completly miserable? Also I've heard you should have 1 per every 5gal of water, I'm not sure I should put 4 more fish in my 20gal. since I have so many in there already. And I now have a few new guys in there, I woke up to my first fry I've caught 2 so far, I've seen more but they hide in the rocks

[guppyart]

I never put salt in my tanks so I don't know about how much they tolerate.
otos like to be in groups of at least 4 or more, I havn't heard of the one fish per 5gallons so I can't help there.
if you are worried about adding 4 more fish they only get to maybe 2" for the biggest.
or you could look into a bristlenose pleco.
I hope someone with more knowledge will come and help anwser your questions better

[Fishnut2]

I'm not sure if the Otos can tolerate salt, but I can assure you that your Pandas don't appreciate it. Yes, they can adapt to it...but they don't have any salt in nature, and can die from too much salt.

[Giddy012]

Oh shoot I thought I read somewhere that it really didn't matter one way or the other for them. My 2 Mollies that really needed (Lyretails) the salt, died recently due to my tank going through a cycle for no reason (I think something must have change in my tap water), so maybe I can cut back on the salt a bit. 1tbs per 10gal.

[guppyart]

mollies really don't need salt its all a personal prefrence, its better for them but they survive withouth it all the time.
and listen to fishnut he knows a ton about fish.