# I have baby oto (fry)! What do i do?



## SovangW (Dec 22, 2013)

I found 3 of them swimming around and have them in a net still in the tank right now. what do i do to raise them? what do i feed them? And what sucks is i also have ich on some neon tetra i just added 3 hours ago. I have the temp up and aeration in the tank. I used 2.5 tsp of kosher salt as well.


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## neilshieh (Jun 24, 2010)

While I'm not too sure how you're going to feed the baby otos, I'd hazard a guess to feed some blanched zucchini. just cut thin slices with a knife if you're good or use a vegetable peeler. put into a small bowl of water and microwave it. play around with the microwave times, it just needs to be soft and eatable. You can slice all of the zucchini and freeze the slices to use for next time. 

As for ich, I actually like feeding partially blanched garlic. It's food for the fish/shrimp/otos and eating garlic that isn't fully blanched promotes the fish to shed their slime coats and get rid of ich. 

Any idea how your otos spawned?


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## SovangW (Dec 22, 2013)

no idea, I didnt even see the eggs. I do have a dark cave in the tank that I cannot see into. I purchased 3 oto from petsmart ( they were the only ones who had it ) and two or 3 days later I thought I noticed a fry. Didnt see it again until yesterday, I saw 4 yesterday, caught 3. They were the first 3 fish in the tank also.

How do i blanch food?


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## SovangW (Dec 22, 2013)

1 super tiny fry that I did not even notice i caught didnt make it
i just now realized it was a fry, there was 4 caught i thought i caught only 3, there is others in the tank, not sure that they will survive the madness.

The 3 that I did know I caught, are all doing well. swimming around the net and feeding on the cucumber. As soon as my girl comes back with zuccini and garlic I will blanch them and let the fish feed off that, I will add blanched zuccini to the Fry's diet. 

the fry are doing fine with the temp adjustment (climbing towards 90 ) and are no where near the bottom of the tank, so they should be fine from the ich
aeration is being provided

I hope all goes well.

No fish is showing signs of stress. Though the Ich is a lot more noticeable this morning. 1 neon tetra did pass away. As far as I could tell, it was not touched by ich. The ammonia level remains at 0 I haven't tested any of the other water parameters, It really would not matter. I am not going to adjust the water chemistry in any way, It would probably end up being disastrous. The tank is near heavily planted anyway, I'm sure itll help keep the nitrates and ammonia and nitrate down at 0 as it already is

I did add 2.5 tsp of kosher salt to the tank yesterday. That will be the only salt I add. (i know tetra hate salt ) The rest of the ich will have to suffer from the heat and garlic. That is my plan of attack.

My primary concern is the survival of the oto that I grew attached to over the course of the week they have been in my tank, and their fry. I'm pretty upset at the neon and the ich they introduced to the tank.

EDIT: oto fry are feeding on the blanched zucchini! How do i just semi blanch garlic? I cut it up and put it in the tank, the fish aren't eating it


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## Aquat (Feb 1, 2012)

SovangW said:


> I'm pretty upset at the neon and the ich they introduced to the tank


Just one of the many reason to support a traditional 'mom & pop' store whenever you can compare to the big chain pet stores. I myself decided to purchase some Neons at a local PetSmart because they were having a $4 for 5 sale. When I came home and acclimated them, I noticed one of them had ick and was swimming very awkwardly in the specimen container. So I removed him, he was on his way out anyways. A day or two later, the remaining 4 caught ick, so I removed them to a quarantine tank with regular monitoring. They died soon after.


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