Breeding Otos

BSaint · Post by **BSaint** » 23 Jul 2005, 03:04

Has anyone had any experience breeding these guys. Had mine for a few months now and lately one keeps rubbing up along side the other kind of strange site and they never leave eachothers side. Could this mean anything?

WhitePine · Post by **WhitePine** » 23 Jul 2005, 17:58

Did you see this article in Shane's World?

I had a pair with similar behaviors... but sadly one died shortly after I noticed them acting different.

Cheers, Whitepine

BSaint · Post by **BSaint** » 23 Jul 2005, 21:00

I did read the article but it didn't say much about what to look for behavior wise and was just curious.

Mike_Noren · Post by **Mike_Noren** » 24 Jul 2005, 13:59

I don't think you'll find much info.

Otos are difficult to breed, so there's few reports about breeding, and most there are, are either accidental breedings where the aquarist never noticed anything until there suddenly were small otos all over the place, or cases of mistaken identity.

Several of the breeding reports on the net don't really concern otos at all, but species of Parotocinclus or Hisonotus.
Notably Otocinclus flexilis has a reputation for being easy to breed - because it is frequently confused with Hisonotus leucofrenatus (even e.g. http://www.scotcat.com gets them confused). To the best of my knowledge O. flexilis has never been bred in captivity.

I've tried breeding O. flexilis, and while I got plump females and some suspicious-looking behaviour, I never found the trigger to actually get them to spawn.

If I was to do another serious attempt at breeding otos, I'd probably try the small otos of the Otocinclus vittatus group. All well-documented breeding reports I've seen have been with otos of this group (e.g. this one: http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/s_r_256.php ).

Also, although Parotocinclus and Hisonotus probably are easier to breed, those genera are closely related to Otocinclus and checking their breeding reports may give useful hints on how to breed Otocinclus. E.g. you might find these interesting:
http://www.scotcat.com/articles/article20.html
http://www.planetcatfish.com/cotm/2004_12.php

bronzefry · Post by **bronzefry** » 25 Jul 2005, 13:46

Do most of the Otos purchased come from wild sources or are they farm raised?

Mike_Noren · Post by **Mike_Noren** » 25 Jul 2005, 17:35

bronzefry wrote:Do most of the Otos purchased come from wild sources or are they farm raised?

AFAIK they're all without exception wild caught.