# NO Ottos or SAEs at any LFS.



## NotoriousPTG (Mar 30, 2006)

I live in the Bronx and cant' find any Ottos or SAEs anywhere local. I'm trying to avoid the shipping charge from internet vendors. Anybody know of a store that has them in the NYC area?


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

Have you tried the big Petsmarts and Petcos. They have otos there. And Petsmart sometimes has SAEs labeled as flying foxes. 

-John N.


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## AlexTal (Mar 23, 2006)

I've heard SAE's are really difficult to get. Apparently they have a "season" which luckily starts in about 2 weeks, I've been told. To my knowledge, there hasn't been any successful breeding in captivity, so they have to be caught in the wild. Call around and keep on the LFS's and when they're in stock, get em quick!


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Have you asked any of the stores if they could order them for you? Our store is more than happy to do it for me, and they don't charge anything extra to do it.
Sometimes there are fish that they just don't stock, but they are readily available.


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## NotoriousPTG (Mar 30, 2006)

Have I asked. I call the 2 of the most highly regarded stores in the city (New World and Fishtown USA) every week for 2 months. These are two of the only places that even know what I'm talking about. I have had guys at other LFS ask their supplier and they say they can't get them. The guy at New World told me that Ottos come from Columbia and its bad Otto catching conditions right now. 

I work on Long Island on weekends and everytime I pass a petco,petsmart, petland or a LFS I go in. This is getting ridiculous. I guess I was hoping for by posting was that someone in the city who saw this might know of a place being that their are probably over 100 LFS in the NYC area.

Maybe eventually I will go for an internet order but I am not currently in any kind of algae outbreak except for some GSA.


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

I called two places asking for Oto Catfish and they said "no, we are sold out of Oto Cichlids". *shrugs*

Petco was one of the places and they are clearly labeled Oto C-A-T-F-I-S-H. Asked twice and was corrected both times as being cichlids.

They are very hard to find in my area as well. CAE's are all over the place those. I'm in the middle of a bad brown diatom outbreak and have been scraping like crazy. My poor Kroger's card is nasty!


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## CLoach (Mar 29, 2005)

Do you have a Walmart nearby?

The reason I ask is that I was looking for Dwarf Hairgrass everywhere around the Sacramento area. All the major fish stores in the area never had it in stock. I was beginning to think that there was some kind of environmental ban on the stuff (you know California, we like to ban things out here).

One day my wife and I were shopping at Walmart. We were just walking by the pet section and I took a look at the fish. They had Dwarf Hairgrass!!! I couldn't believe my eyes.

Last time I was there, they had Otos. I don't think I've ever seen SAE there.

Good luck!


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## psidriven (Feb 21, 2004)

Burks said:


> I called two places asking for Oto Catfish and they said "no, we are sold out of Oto Cichlids". *shrugs*QUOTE]
> 
> They might be talking about the same thing since the full name is otocinlus, which depending on the accent could sound like "Oto Cichlids". Maybe try again and as for a discription.


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

psidriven said:


> Burks said:
> 
> 
> > I called two places asking for Oto Catfish and they said "no, we are sold out of Oto Cichlids". *shrugs*QUOTE]
> ...


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## sherry (Sep 30, 2005)

I"ve gotten otos from new world and from, of all places, petland.. they have all lived, so if this is a bad season, just wait. they will be coming. You can also contact mark at annubias design (search yahoo, it is a group on there) if he can get them he will, and his shipping to nyc is only 10 bucks since he is in philly


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

I love it. Went to three different fish stores today, all three had Otos out the hind-end. Amazing what you can find 100 miles away, totally different fish selection.

You may have to drive a bit to pick some up. Take a weekend trip and enjoy yourself, just stop at a fish store or two on the way there and back to pick some up. Good way to relax a bit.


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## RoseHawke (Jan 4, 2005)

I haven't seen any otocinclus around here in _months._ Maybe a roadtrip is in order.


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## NotoriousPTG (Mar 30, 2006)

Roadtrip, oh boy tolls, and 3.29 a gallon here in NYC. It can cost you $9.00 just to leave the city and comeback. 
I'm not making a special trip for a common fish. (well everywhere else in the world anyway)

I'll just keep checking local and eventually I may have to fold and pay for shipping. Do they actually survive that trip? What about oxygen levels in the water?


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## bblumberg (Mar 7, 2006)

I bought 50 SAEs from Aquariumfish.net for a reasonable price $2.75, I believe. Shipping was about $20 and all the fish were alive on arrival and survived. Their price is currently somewhat higher than I paid, $3.50/fish. Still, if you need them, you need them... I have had excellent luck with Amano shrimp eating algae. I think that the ~35 shrimp in my 45g hex eat more algae than the 5 otos or 5 SAEs.


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## NotoriousPTG (Mar 30, 2006)

Found them both!!! Sort of. Ottos came in at fishtown USA in queens on sale 99 cents for juveniles. Down the road at another shop I just happened to be passing I saw SAE the real deal. 
BUT they were $19.99. "Talk about supply and demand!" I said to the guy and then I asked him if he ever heard of price gouging. He was amused but didn't offer to sell the ALGAE EATERS for anything less than the posted price.

I then bought 2 gorgous male praecox rainbows for the lowest price I've ever seen, from him. LOL $4.


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

Congrats. Let us know how the Otos do. One of mine already perished due to unknown reasons.


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## heidisue (May 3, 2006)

Yeah, I noticed they were in at Petco in Union Sqaure, too. It was quite a long time we were waiting for Otos in NYC.... glad you found your fish


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

Is it normal for an Oto, after a ton of eating, to have a green stomach? Noticed my largest one has a very small patch of green in the stomach area (not on the skin, inside the fish). They've been dealing with a lot of brown diatoms and green algae. Just making sure it isn't sick.


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## snowhillbilly (Mar 29, 2006)

*Sae*

My local walmart always has SAE in there tanks they are even very cheap. Have you tried your local walmart yet?


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## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

snowhillbilly said:


> My local walmart always has SAE in there tanks they are even very cheap. Have you tried your local walmart yet?


Walmart? Wow. Charley are you sure they were SAEs and not Chinese Algae Eaters? Cause I've seen the ladder, but not the SAEs there.









_SAE from the photo album_









_Chinese Algae Eater from the photo album_

-John N.


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## druxboyz (Aug 9, 2004)

walmart near my home has em for 2 bucks each. As for the green belly, i think that a small tint of green is fine. But if the green tint turns into a dark green bulge, then it will probably die.

i read somewhere that oto's supposedly have bacteria in their stomach which helps digest the algae for them. When we buy them and place them in different water, new aquariums and such, these bacteria can die, which will then kill the oto because he cant digest. lmk if im wrong.


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## Burks (May 25, 2006)

druxboyz said:


> As for the green belly, i think that a small tint of green is fine. But if the green tint turns into a dark green bulge, then it will probably die.


Good to know. I read that about the bacteria someplace else as well. Probably what happened to my first one I bought. Either that or he was starving in the LFS tank and it was already too late to save him.

*knocks on wood* All four of mine are doing fine and kicking butt on algae/diatoms. I fed them a thin slice of zucchini today and within 30-40 minutes it was gone except the rind. Yummy!

I just moved one to my 1g tank to do some brown diatom cleanup. Glass and plants needed a good cleaning. Transferred 6 plants to my 10g and the 4 in there started to work on the right away.


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## Dewmazz (Sep 6, 2005)

I'm happy for you. I'm SOL in my area, both petstores I know of have been out of Otos for months. I went off-island and saw a whole tank of them. But god has a gnarly sense of humor and I couldn't bring the fish on the plane . Anyone in the 808 region want to try to mail me some fish?


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