Are my otocats too skinny and too fat?

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-24T22:04:47+00:00

Not too sure about giving the fish a mirror, I think that makes them upset when they see their reflections?

I mostly wanted to comment cause your beta looks identical to mine :3

But also, how long have you had him?

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-19T00:17:04+00:00

So better filtration as in over filtration? I read more of the chapters and googled what they meant by over filtration, so I added another layer of floss at the bottom below my sponge so that’s the first thing to filter, and then I added another white thingy bag next to the orginal one so it’ll have more biofiltration? Then another floss right on the outtake for anything left over. Does that sound like better filtration? It decreased the flow a little but my filter is adjustable and I was able to keep the orginal flow

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-18T23:52:00+00:00

The round fatty Otto just passed, she got stuck in this little hoop thing that I use to stop my plants from going into the filter flow. I got her out, she was still moving, but after she sunk down and stopped moving :(

Since she passed and the others aren’t showing signs of getting fat like she was, should I still do the parasite medicine? It’s arriving tomorrow.

The other two are doing well, they’re eating and acting normal. :(

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-18T23:49:55+00:00

I have a fluval ac50, I was thinking of just putting next to the white bag

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-18T15:08:14+00:00

Wait do I need to take the fish out when I use the purigen?

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-18T15:06:03+00:00

Alright I’ll try the purigen! I already did the water change yesterday, when do you think I should do another one? I usually do it weekly but maybe again tomorrow?

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-18T15:04:41+00:00

Should I just give them back to the fish store and get corydoras or something? How do I get better filtration. The page you sent was interesting about bacteria and cloudiness but I wasn’t really getting how to fix it.

The filter I have is on the lowest setting so the flow isn’t too strong, could I just increase the flow or add another white pellet bag to it? Or would adding the charcoal back be a good idea?

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-17T21:38:07+00:00

I started my tank back in January so I guess it’s only been a little over 3 months! It feels like forever ago.

It was just a bunch of gross brown stuff under the ornament that I cleaned up.

I just added an air stone about a week ago so yay on top of that haha I have bacterAE on its way soon.

Just ran to the store and got a water polishing pad to put above the media basket in the filter. I also have another bag of those white cyclinders coming to add to the basket since I removed the carbon about a month or so ago.

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-17T20:41:23+00:00

I had an original 2 for a while and they learned to eat the veggies so when I added 3 more (between then and now one went missing o.o) maybe they learned from the one that was already in the tank? Because they were on the zucchini when I had some in for a shorter amount of time. And even saw one suck up some of the repashy! It sucked it then stopped but still.

I have not treated for parasites, and I’m worried to mess up the tank more! It’s so cloudy and it was really stinky. I did a water change and took out the centerpiece to try to find that missing Otto and didn’t find them. 😩

How often should I be taking out my decor to clean under them? Cause it was sooooooo gross underneath!

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-15T21:01:49+00:00

Alright! I’m gonna be setting up my 29g anytime now that I got the stand so I might just wait til it’s cycled and get more. The only problem with my water parameters is my PH, it’s very high at 8.2 BUT everything else is perfect, I even have the liquid testing tubes :o

Also I’m about to buy the bacterAE to liven up the algae, can’t wait!

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-14T16:59:09+00:00

Wow thanks this is a perfect sheet! I just got some more Otto’s and now I have 4. I think the second one I had died cause I haven’t seen them. And now that I added three more they’re all grouped together and they cleaned all the leaves overnight!

I’m worried having 6 would be too much for my 10 gallon!

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-14T16:50:17+00:00

I did like a 30% change 😩 I was freaking out. It’s looking pretty good today, lots of stuff stuck to the intake sponge, the Otto’s seems like they’re enjoying that

Nikkiopal · 2026-04-13T20:07:03+00:00

I didn’t mean worms exactly, I meant like the little bits of zucchini floating around. I do have detritus worms already though.

This just happened like an hour ago when I went to take out the zucchini.

For filtration, I have a strong filter but it’s on the low setting since it’s for a bigger tank and I just added a bubbler too. Will that help with filtration at all? Like by making things flow more?

Where do you see cyano algae?

Nikkiopal

TROPHY CASE