Otocinclus catfish is one of the most popular aquarium fishes in the world, which come from the rivers of South America and it is very similar to other freshwater species.
Therefore, if you are looking for a small and peaceful fish, which always tries to stay out of the way, then this fish will be your perfect choice, and we will tell you why in our article today.
First, you have to understand what this fish is; it is one of the most famous herbivores fishes, which can restrict what you can give them.
The best food for it all the time is algae because it is the main food for it even in the wild, so it will be good to add one of them daily in mid quantities.
Besides the algae, you can still add some other food to this fish, such as green vegetables like lettuce, spinach, and zucchini.
You can drop a small piece or two for the fish a couple of times a week, but you have to make sure that the foods sink to the bottom of the aquarium.
It is very important to go back to the tank after 24 hours in order to remove any uneaten pieces from it.
Be careful not to overfeed your fishes whether with vegetables or algae because it could make them die or suffer from many diseases.
At the beginning of time, you will feel that it is difficult for this fish to breed in the home aquarium, but by the time you will find that it can live and breed easily.
You will find that the male and female fish keep smell each other like dogs, then the female will find her way on the surface, and once the male sees her doing this, he will intertwine his body with hers.
Now the male will fertilize her eggs, then she will be able to lay her eggs all around the tank.
You will easily know which eggs are good when you see them all are transparent with a bit of dark inside.
You will know the bad eggs when you find them are fluffy white, and you must get rid of these bad eggs.
If you decided to have this fish in your place, then you need to know that it can only live for 3 or 5 years only.
This will happen if you offer them a good living condition, a clean tank, and healthy foods.
You have to know that this fish doesn’t need many things because it is a peaceful and calm fish, which can tolerate a range of conditions.
You will feel so lucky if you have this fish because it isn’t prone to any particular diseases, it only suffers from some parasitic and fungal problems, which ate popular and common among freshwater fish, such as Ich.
There are some symptoms that can show on your fish, which will tell you that it doesn’t feel so well, such as loss of appetite, an increased respiration rate, and inactivity.
All the past symptoms are popular signs of disease, which probably happen because of an unclean tank or poor diet.
Once you find out that there is a sick fish in the tank, you must separate it from the rest of the fishes to protect them all.
Otocinclus catfish needs special care because it is a sensitive type, which can die if you don’t take good care of it.
Therefore, if you want to keep this fish with you for a long time, then you need to clean its aquarium daily and feed it healthy foods.
As we said before, this fish eats algae almost all the time, and it can leave some dirt in the tank, so you must clean it well because changing water won’t completely clean all the algae you see.
It is important to provide warm water, which can slowly moving in the tank and will be well-oxygenated.
The suitable water temperature for this fish is 70°F – 78°F (21°C – 26°C), and the water hardness must be 6° to 15° dH.
This fish doesn’t need a very large tank like other freshwater species, it will only need a tank that sizes 20 gallons or larger.
It will be larger than 20 gallons if you will have a group of fishes.
If you want to create a suitable aquarium for this fish, then you need to make sure that there is a soft and sandy substrate below the water.
You must make sure that the water is clean all the time by changing it daily, and make sure that there are no foods in the tank after 24 hours of feeding the fishes.
You can add some plants to the aquarium, but don’t add a lot of them because they could prevent the light from getting to the fishes.
The best plants for this fish will be Staurogyne repens, which can be used to provide more shelter for the fishes especially if they are more than 3 fishes in one place.
You can also try to add some plants at the bottom of the tank because fishes spent almost all their time there.
This fish is famous for its peaceful behavior, it is simply a small little fish, which loves to stay out of the way.
You will also notice that it is easy for larger fishes to eat these fishes because of their peaceful behavior.
You will also find that they are afraid all the time, and when they get scared, they always dart across the tank, and this will be a problem for you when you try to catch them in a net.
We wish you could reach all the information you wanted to know about Otocinclus catfish, and we hope that we could help you know more about this amazing fish.
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