We didn't intentionally start to breed them. Our panda cories started one weekend and the following weekend the otos started. We didn't feed them anything special. We noticed two females were really swollen and then they just started.
1. Goes without saying, never put otos in a new tank. Our community planted tank had been established for over 4 months when we got our otos. Our tank had lots of algae and with all plecos, a bit of bogwood.
2. Have a breeding group of at least 5, as they like company. They seem to like a certain type of green leaf plant. We found hygropolysperma to work for us.
3. Let them get really fat, not too much tank maintenance, let the nitrates and TDS's build up.
4. Get yourself a phosphate remover. Don't use any phosphate remover or charcoal before this stage. We use NO-PHOS by Advanced Aquatics which rapidly removes phosphates and nitrates. And like most plecos and corydoras start doing 30% water changes every 3-4 days. This should bring on spawning in a few days. Our tank stats before this stage, our NO2- 0PPM, NO3- 20-30PPM, GH 9, KH 4, PHOSPHATES(PO4) 5-10ppm our water in Derby has high PO4, ph 7 and temp 26C. AFTER changes NO3 down to 5ppm and near untraceable PO4.
5. Once the pair spawn, they lay between 2-6 eggs. They lay them on the underside of the hydropolysperma and we wait till they've laid, then remove the leaf. We already had a breeding net in our fry tank with panda cory fry and eggs. The breeding net is in a good flow. Luckily for us, the breeding net was full of algae, plenty food for oto fry. The parents spawned every 7-10 days. We have a 60% survival rate at the moment. We have definately observed 2 females spawning with the male during the spawning day. They normally start in the morning, and go all day into the evening.
6. As for how they spawn, typical cory fashion. The eggs take 48 hours to hatch and are smaller than cory eggs, although similar in appearance. The fry take about a day to absorb a HUGE egg sac, in comparison to their size. They then are free swimming, either stuck to the side of the breeding net, on a leaf or skimming the water. I do feed our panda fry microworms 3 times daily, so the oto fry may be eating some of this too. As soon as they are about 7-10 days old, I release them into the fry tank where they grow at an alarming rate.
Their tank mates are 5 panda and 5 sterbai cories, 2 angels, 2 Queen Arabesques, 1 baby albino BN, 5 harlequin, 5 white cloud mountain minnows, 3 Red Whiptails, 9 cardinals and a lone molly (from our livebearer days). Oh, and 5 Japonica/Amano shrimp.
I can't take all the credit, hubby organized all the tank requirements and parameters. My job is looking after the eggs and rearing the young. Hope this helps you all, if you can add to it, let us know.
As for type, not too sure. They all seem to look very similar. I am leaning towards mariae.
The parents spawning
[/img]The eggs
Newly hatched fry
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2 Day old fry
4 Day old fry
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16 Day old fry
2 Month old fry
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We have put some of the older fry into our community tank and they have almost reached the size of the parents. They are now 3 and a half months old. They have been a joy to watch grow, especially at the rate they grow.
And finally, our community tank, where all the "action" takes place.
And our fry tank
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Hope those who wish to breed them find some useful info here.
Thanks
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