I'm curious to know. What's the disadvantage and advantages or otos, SAEs and Yamato shrimps? Seems like all of them do the same job. Is there certain conditions when u shld choose one over another?
think the SAEs are the most "gangster-like" among the three.
my experience is that oto does the algae cleaning part on the glass well, whereas shrimps only clean the moss usually or small plants.
sensitivity wise, the SAEs are the most resilent.
cheers.
I also find Otto milder and they are really cute as compared to the SAE. Yamato is a bully to my cherry in my tank. If you keep shrimp, try not to add Yamato IMO. On the other hand, Otto is friendly towards shrimp
Gangster in what way? Do they bully others? SAE's don't look too bad, I reckon. Yamato's will feed on fish food too so unless you starve them, after a while, they kind of 'lay off' the algae or at least that's what I find mine do anyway!
Yamatos got a bad habit of grabbing food and swimming away to some secluded spot to feast on them. They are not too keen to shareOriginally Posted by andrew73
Gangster in what way? Do they bully others? SAE's don't look too bad, I reckon. Yamato's will feed on fish food too so unless you starve them, after a while, they kind of 'lay off' the algae or at least that's what I find mine do anyway!
SAEs tend to wrestle actively for food once bigger size. They are more aggressive also when larger. My gang of four could not stop "squabbling" amongst themselves all day long
Tend to agree Otos are the best-behaved and non-aggressive diligent workers amongst the rest.
Rendezvous With Destiny...
I think one important criterion to consider is which type of algae you are trying to control via adding them into you tank (i.e. otos and nerite snails are great for brown algae but will probably not be perform as well as the rest for green hair algae?)
the SAEs are pretty aggressive in the manner they move and grab for food .
they are also pretty fast swimmers compared to the other 2, and disturb the things in the tank when they swim too fast.
otherwise they are good workers.
imho.
My personal experience is quite bad with SAE ... they do their jobs well initially. But once they realized that fish food taste better, they will fight with the tank-mates for the fish-food and stop feeding on algae. Besides, they are very difficult to catch/remove ... I never introduce SAE ever since.
OTO is the best ... mild and does their jobs well. Highly recommended.
Oto oso looks nice in a planted tank too. Colours not so bright.My personal experience is quite bad with SAE ... they do their jobs well initially. But once they realized that fish food taste better, they will fight with the tank-mates for the fish-food and stop feeding on algae. Besides, they are very difficult to catch/remove ... I never introduce SAE ever since.
OTO is the best ... mild and does their jobs well. Highly recommended.
I have tried out all three in my tank before.
Yamato shrimps - They are not really hardworking from what I see.They like to hang out at one corner in groups most of the time.I find them sensitive to water parameters like CO2 and pH though because I lost all my Yamatos due to unstable CO2 injectionHowever,under the right conditions,they look very nice with all those red lines on their bodies.
Otocinclus - Very hardworking.If it's not attached to my tank wall it's attached to one of my plants.Rarely see them rest.Plus they look very cute too.
SAE - Very very restless.Like someone running all over the place.Instead of eating algae it eats my flame moss and fish food instead.Have a high chance of jumping out of the tank.All three of my SAE did that
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 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.
In my experience, they prefer different algae:
SAE - good for BBA. But usually I don't use them unless the BBA is too much to control.
Yamato - good for Hair Algae
Otocinclus - general algae on tank glass, equipment and leaves.
See http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_algae_eaters.php
koah fong
Juggler's tanks
Unactivated Member
Saes are very agressive.in my opinion use only small ones. Octtos are on the other side of the spectrum, able to keep with many small fishes and shrimps.Ive only seen yamatos to be agressive to other shrimps sometimes attack other shrimps.
OTO is still the best,mild and does their jobs well. Highly recommended. Have 5 of them in my 4ft tank. Will want to get 2 more
Personally, I will still prefer Otos as they are very mild in terms of behaviour...The most 'dangerous' acts I'd ever seen my 2 Otos performed in my shrimp tank was seeing them riding 'piggyback' on my shrimps & Ramshorns occassionally...
Hoping now my 2 otos will breed... but not too sure if both are of the same gender leh...
My tank just recently experienced an algae bloom and the glass and leaves are starting to show some form of algae growth. So after so many comments, I've went ahead to get 3 otos for my tank. Placed them in last night and went to sleep.
The next day, the most glorious thing happened to my tank. It was like someone has sneaked in to changed it! No kidding! These guys worked OT (without me paying them 1.5 times their salary.. well they had none) and thoroughly cleanse my tank off algae.. everything was spanking new and clean.
My experience of yamato is from a friend who told me "Yamato is a walking destruction", probably cos they tend to just talk over plants which could mean messing up smaller plants. But I do see them doing their algae job.
SAEs.. well I was helping my friend tend to 3 of them, 2 flew out of the sky and kamikazed and the last one...... lets just say he thought that he was a rummy nose. Started following my small school of rummy nose around and doing what they are doing. Secretly becoming its own algae eating self when the school is not watching....
All in all this is my in-experienced take on the 3 species.
Glad to hear that you go ahead with the Oto and they did a great job for you.
Hi Lifestory,
Glad to hear that you prefer otos out of the 3 types, and that it did its job so well. Anyway, Yamatos are very good for clearing hair algae, esp those on mosses. generally those that are of medium size are still ok in a smaller tank, and it does its job pretty well. but those that are XXL can be quite troublesome, esp if there is hairgrass in the tank. it will just walk past, and uproot some of the grass along its way.
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.....
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