# SAE's and Ottos schooling?



## BigRed27 (Mar 11, 2004)

I just noticed tonight that my siamese algae eaters and my otocinclus like to school together. They shimmy and shake against the glass, move to a new section in the tank and repeat it. Right now the SAE's are small and at a glance they almost look like the same species as the ottos. I attempted to take a short video clip but everyone got camera shy. I wasnt smart enough to turn off the room lights before I approached the tank.

SAE's and Ottos living in harmony. Warms my heart. 
Ill attempt to get a video of them doing it later on.


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## Homer_Simpson (Apr 2, 2007)

BigRed27 said:


> I just noticed tonight that my siamese algae eaters and my otocinclus like to school together. They shimmy and shake against the glass, move to a new section in the tank and repeat it. Right now the SAE's are small and at a glance they almost look like the same species as the ottos. I attempted to take a short video clip but everyone got camera shy. I wasnt smart enough to turn off the room lights before I approached the tank.
> 
> SAE's and Ottos living in harmony. Warms my heart.
> Ill attempt to get a video of them doing it later on.


Cool! I have a SAE that I have had in my 59 gallon for 7+ years. He is by far the largest fish in my tank and a monster. I nick named him Nessie. I am in the process of slowly converting the tank to a fully planted tank and began with mixing some Schultz aquatic soil into the existing gravel and topping it off with some fluorite that I had left over. I had to move a lot of things around and replace some plastic plants with live plants. I think the SAE got really stressed and went into hiding. He literally stopped cleaning the tank and I wouldn't see him around(not even at night) for days and days. He wouldn't even eat the algae wafers that I was throwing in for him. He usually comes out when I chuck these in and devours them in a matter of minutes. I could see the algae wafers on the substrate uneaten, the next day. Diatom and brush algae began overtaking my tank. As several days went by, I thought he was dead fors sure so I thought , oh...oh...I better go fishing for Nessie and remove his dead carcass to avoid an ammonia spike in my tank. I got two ottos who cleaned up the diatom and brush algae in two days. As soon as I got the Ottos, guess who decided to come out of hiding - Nessie!. As soon as he noticed that the ottos were cleaning the tank he decide to lend a helping hand. It is funny, it is almost like the ottos, lifted his stress and depression. He now schools with them and they work together to keep the tank clean.


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## Jessie (Apr 23, 2007)

My SAE's, Otos and Denisoni barbs all school together from time to time. I think it's the horizontal dark markings they find friendship in 

My juvenile diamond tetras also school with my gold tetras. I don't think the gold tetras know that their friends are going to grow into being just as robust as their parents!


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## 180gz71 (Apr 13, 2007)

My SAE's, emperor tetras, and ottos school together regularly. I have 12 sae,10 ottos, 6 tetras, and the first time I saw them schooling I couldnt believe it. ITs an awesome sight. Good to hear.


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## oblongshrimp (Aug 8, 2006)

I have seen my SAE's school with ottos when they were smaller but they don't now that they are bigger (but they still school with themselves). They are schooling fish and if there are other SAE's around they will hang around each other....I have also heard this prevents them from being so aggressive (of course those people may have had flying foxs or CAE instead of real SAE)


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## vicpinto (Mar 27, 2007)

My ottos school constantly with my 12 rummy nose tetras. I get a kick out of watching that!


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