The Puffer Forum

Well I picked up 3 Oto's that im going to try in Bloats tank. But for the time being I put them in my algea covered 5G. My Betta is loving life right now since he got the best end of the deal right now and was moved into my 10G snail tank. Oh I also tossed in a few new snails into my 5 and tossed out some MTS's that were living there. Going to use the 10 and 5 for snail breeding

My ottos have gotten a bit sluggish and I had one die the other day...First fish to die on me in a long time and I'm apt to blame my 7.8 ph. I picked up three of them about 7 weeks ago and they absoloutly thrived at first. They are so cute and entertaining. I had them in my DP tank but I moved them to my community when they started to get sluggish and eat less.

How does your betta do in your snail jail? I have a 10g with pond and ramshorn snails and I've considered a betta for it.

so far so good, havent noticed him attacking any snails yet. He had a lot of MTS snails in his 5 gallon and he never messed with them.

Damn I have a PH of 7.8 and I admit I never did my research on Oto's. Ill have to look up there PH. I do have a neutralizer that I could put in if need be

Remember, pH rarely matters as long as it's stable. I doubt your pH is to blame.

I did a quick look at they said top PH of 7.5, is .3 in ph a big deal???

Everything I've read about otos says that they are very sensitive to high ph. I don't know if that is why it died but that's what I wanted to blame. Who knows the cause, it just made me start to worry about the other two. I call them sluggish because I never see them any more and their color as dulled, but this could all be attributed to aquarium life as ottos are wild caught. One of them stays hidden behind my black silicone and the other hides in the fake plant that hangs from the back of my tank. My fake plants are spotless so they must be grazing at night.

I agree that the most important thing about ph is stability and mine is always at 7.8. I don't know why people worry so much about high ph and I didn't mean to sound like one of those individuals.

xrayjeeper, it is best to never use a ph buffer as the tank always naturally buffers back to it's natural ph and the fish pay for it. I actually can't believe they still sell the stuff, it's all about keeping the 7.0 myth going to make more money. You go to Petsmart and they have five different brands of the stuff but good luck finding IP meds or a good choice of vitamins.

Btw, I acclimated my ottos very slowly as the store's ph was 8.4. I always check the bag water before I start to acclimate and adjust the time accordingly.

IMO, I agree with Flutter...as long as it's stable, pH rarely matters. My oto was perfectly content in my 55gal and it had a pH of 8.2. He only died because the angelfish ripped him apart[I couldn't save him in time]...