Otocinclus affinis OTO vs Siamese Algae Eater SAE vs Yamato Shrimps

[torque6]

i think if you go to clementi or pasir ris farms/shops, there are many oto of that size which are abdundant at $1.50 for the ordinary oto.
They are actually very commonly available nowadays.
check it out.

thanks william, but have decided against having 1 anyways. Seems 8 boraras B in a 1FT has pretty much "disturbed" the serenity of the 1fT planted tank..

[wllm33]

i am having this very stuck algae on my glass tank now, and it is very rough and cannot be rubbed off with the hand.

i don't know if anything can get them off, as my oto seems too mild and it is only 1 ft tank.
is there no way other than the algae scrapper?
also have hair algae growing on my sponge, cos i think i increase the wattage to 55w from 36w and the co2. what's best for the hair algae and not disturb my downoi or hairgrass?
thanks for your advice.

[Fuzzy]

Im also considering Oto as hann recommended, but so far less than 2cm otos are hard to find. CRS haven got several but most of them kinda remain "motionless" in the tank + ive noticed some fin rots of most of them.. so didnt buy.

I just saw quite a few Otos under 2cm at Polyart. They were going for $1.50 a piece.

[aquaticlover]

Is there anyone experience that Otos are very sensitive and very hard to survive in the tank? For me, I bought Otos and SAEs at the same time and all my Otos died after 2 months. but SAEs are still surviving.

[WiNd08]

i just noticed, otos do not eat green hair algae (thicker) but they do eat thread algae (translucent and thinner).

luckily these thicker hair algae can be removed easily by hand!

i also notice otos don't eat my green spot algae

[greenpea]

Is there anyone experience that Otos are very sensitive and very hard to survive in the tank? For me, I bought Otos and SAEs at the same time and all my Otos died after 2 months. but SAEs are still surviving.

my 3 SAE have survive for more than a year now..not 1 perish.. probably due to actively snatching fish food..

[WiNd08]

yes Otos are sensitive to the water especially easy to die if they are not correctly acclaimatized.

i bought 15 Otos for my 4ft tank and 9 died due to lack of acclaimatization. sigh!

but once they are used to your tank, they are very hardy!

[alfredliow316]

i am having this very stuck algae on my glass tank now, and it is very rough and cannot be rubbed off with the hand.

i don't know if anything can get them off, as my oto seems too mild and it is only 1 ft tank.
is there no way other than the algae scrapper?
also have hair algae growing on my sponge, cos i think i increase the wattage to 55w from 36w and the co2. what's best for the hair algae and not disturb my downoi or hairgrass?
thanks for your advice.

Try a young, starved SAE?
for algae on the glass, my favourite are the snails, have a few in my 1 footer. Cleans up every inch of the glass!

[Csababá]

What kind of snails do you mean? I only have apple, Physa/Lymnaea and ramshorn/Planorbis (in another tank) and Melanoides tuberculata but still have green spot algae.

[alfredliow316]

I have ramshorn and Bee snails (Not quite sure. It's Yellow and black stripes with thorns growing out of the shells.)

[yyylarry]

My sae isnt eating any bba as far as i see...But snails are hard at work on the green algae spots on my tank.

[Loopy]

If you want to throw the money at them, make sure your tank is ready for them. I once bought 3 and they all died.

But you are right, they are really cool looking.

As for the subject. Otto's for me. Yamato's are hilarious as someone said, they take away the food. Like kids running away with burgers.

I have no experience with SAE's.

May I ask what about Tiger Otos? Are they good workers and hardy fishes? They are more expensive than normal Otos, a big smaller but nice body patterns.....

[BuWaC]

If you want to throw the money at them, make sure your tank is ready for them. I once bought 3 and they all died.

But you are right, they are really cool looking.

As for the subject. Otto's for me. Yamato's are hilarious as someone said, they take away the food. Like kids running away with burgers.

I have no experience with SAE's.

True, tatz what the boss in C328 told me, water condition nid to be tip top, and low PH (tho my tank PH is low coz using ADA soil). Btw, do Yamato breed in fwater tank? Am feeling a bit weird coz I see some shrimplets in my tank and all I have now are only Yamatos (unless the uncle wrote wrongly on the plastic bag which indicate Yamato...)

[Loopy]

You feeling weird because your Yamato Shrimp has been engaging in frisky activity?!

Anyway, I did a search for you and came up with this: I tested the link it worked, hope it works for you. If not use the search function and type in "Breeding Yamato Shrimp"
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...earchid=531048

Unless you are adding salt of some sort - Also I did a google and there are indeed ways of breeding Yamato Shrimp.

Mystery!

True, tatz what the boss in C328 told me, water condition nid to be tip top, and low PH (tho my tank PH is low coz using ADA soil). Btw, do Yamato breed in fwater tank? Am feeling a bit weird coz I see some shrimplets in my tank and all I have now are only Yamatos (unless the uncle wrote wrongly on the plastic bag which indicate Yamato...)

[wllm33]

Try a young, starved SAE?
for algae on the glass, my favourite are the snails, have a few in my 1 footer. Cleans up every inch of the glass!

do your snails eat the plants as well since they are vegetarian also.
i am more concern about my plants . if they eat them as well, then i'll rather not use the snails.
what type of snails do you use which are best equip for the job without harming the plants?
thanks.

[alfredliow316]

do your snails eat the plants as well since they are vegetarian also.
i am more concern about my plants . if they eat them as well, then i'll rather not use the snails.
what type of snails do you use which are best equip for the job without harming the plants?
thanks.

The best and favourite of all snails (that i know of ) is the bee snail. it's yellow/black stripes and with thorns growing out of the shell.

It's the longest lasting ones. I have them in my Malawi tank as well as planted tank, both of different pH and hardness.

So far I think they dont harm my plants from my observations. I have in my 1ft cube : various moss, anubias nana petite, pelia, US Fissiden, HM, Crypt. Parva and 2 Marimo balls. All of them look OK eventhough I have about 5 snails in the 1ft tank.

[wllm33]

The best and favourite of all snails (that i know of ) is the bee snail. it's yellow/black stripes and with thorns growing out of the shell.

It's the longest lasting ones. I have them in my Malawi tank as well as planted tank, both of different pH and hardness.

So far I think they dont harm my plants from my observations. I have in my 1ft cube : various moss, anubias nana petite, pelia, US Fissiden, HM, Crypt. Parva and 2 Marimo balls. All of them look OK eventhough I have about 5 snails in the 1ft tank.

thanks.
i think it is the same one as what a forrumer here put in a picture.
looks like a bee, yellow and black.
i got one in c328 today, cost a buck.
will see if it works, as it is pretty small, but my tank is only 1ft and it has a lot of glass algae, and i don't want it to eat my downoi leaves also.
cheers.

[BuWaC]

You feeling weird because your Yamato Shrimp has been engaging in frisky activity?!

Anyway, I did a search for you and came up with this: I tested the link it worked, hope it works for you. If not use the search function and type in "Breeding Yamato Shrimp"
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...earchid=531048

Unless you are adding salt of some sort - Also I did a google and there are indeed ways of breeding Yamato Shrimp.

Mystery!

Thanks bro, by the way the link doesnt work.....I managed to snap some pix of my shrimplets and momma shrimp today, its indeed Yamato shrimp spawn in ma tank

Sorry for the lousy pic quality :

[Csababá]

Thanks, I have 3 Otos but they don't it greean algae spots nor bba. Nor does my lonely SAE or ancistrus. I have 2 aplle snail and they graze ont the green spots but I don't know whether they eat it or just "walk" through. I have lots of Malaysian trumpet snails. They come up to the front glass by night but no idea if they eat algae or not.

[insider]

i didn't know that yamato shrimp can be breed in fresh water. I always though that they can only be breed in blackish water.