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dead catfish in tank, what do i do??

880 views 15 replies 6 participants last post by  itsuki 
#1 ·
i have a 20 g long, naturally planted tank, with moderate amount of live plants, heated, filtered. 1 betta, and 3 oto catfish(now 2). the tank has been up for about a month now, after a 6 week waiting period for the soil to aerate and water cycling, ive been doing weekly water changes every wk doing 10 to 20 percent changes. a few minutes ago i stared at my tank i saw that one of the otos was laying dead on the driftwood. im going to assume its been there for a few days because there was what seemed to be mold collecting on him. i quickly netted him out the tank, his body seemed to be broke in half, right under the belly. i tried looking for the other 2 otos and could only find 1, they blend in very well but either way if another did die his body didnt make it to the tank floor. i dont believe my betta attacked the oto to death, he is already acustomed to them and swims past them all the time. i did turn off my filter for 3 days straight last week because it was making wierd noises (like there was a rock suck in there), do you think that caused his death?? but more importantly what do i do about the tank?? how much of a water change do i do?? i dont want to scrap the whole tank and start over :(
 
#2 ·
It depends, turning off the filter might have caused a mini cycle in your aquarium and could have killed the oto. Another thing is if the filter was the only thing providing the air/gas exchange in the aquarium then the oto could have suffocated to death.

Can you post a picture of the aquarium and tell us the water parameters. I.e. ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.
 
#3 ·
heres a pic i took of the tank the 1st wk it was up, it hasnt changed. i got worried and did a 25 percent waterchange right after i posted. i also looked over and over for the 2nd catfish and cannot find him!! its like he disappeared!! i got so desparate i looked inside the filter, i opened it up and right there suck in the motorblade.....a malayasian trumpet snail :/ wth!! so that was causing the noise!! but no 2nd catfish!! i will test the water right but im not sure it will tell us too much as i just did a waterchange, plus im not sure if i will read the results correctly, ive only used the masterkit once before and some of the color scale changes have only a minute difference. another thing ive just noticed is that the remaining oto isnt as active as when i first got him, i figured a bigger tank would have a larger supply of algae for him....

 
#7 ·
50% water change on a 20g tank, isnt that abit excessive??

no, i never supplemented their diet, they,ve always seemed so energetic so i assumed they were well feed, that is until i noticed the other day that the 1 oto i did see seem very unenergetic. i will start adding veggies to their diet.
 
#10 ·
I have a 20 gallon long and do a water change of about 60% each week. IMO there is no such thing as 'excessive' in regards to a water change...it's fresh water. :) I do a 50% on my 35 and a 75% on my 10, every week.
Water changes keep nitrates from ever building up, along with dissolved organics in the water that could harm fish. Small water changes don't really do much, IMO.

Veggies are good, maybe look into a good brand of algae wafer (hikari comes to mind) and try growing algae on rocks in jars on a windowsill to feed them, especially new arrivals.

Good luck :)
 
#8 ·
Due to the way they're caught, otos are extremely sensitive when first introduced to new aquariums. Even with the most well-kept, mature tanks, mysteriously losing at least one from a group is quite common. Once you get past the first month, their survival rate is much better.

This is why it is really much better to introduce them to an established tank with lots of biofilm for them to eat. It can take a newly wild-caught oto a while to figure out that zucchini is food- but in the meantime, his gut bacteria have already died off, leaving him unable to process whatever food he does eat. Being that your setup is only a month old, he might have starved. Or, it might just be one of those mysterious oto deaths.

Make sure you supplement your remaining oto(s) with blanched zucchini. Spinach is also a hit in my tank. Hopefully, this will tempt your missing oto to show himself if he's okay- the little stinkers are great at hiding.

Also, otos need to be in groups of at least four- 6 is better. This will increase their survival rates. Your lone oto is going to get very lonely. Since you already have at least one, I would go out and get him some friends. Trust me, you will notice a huge change in their behavior- they will visibly act much happier.

I wouldn't worry about any illness in your tank. Just keep a close eye on the other residents. If you don't find your missing oto, keep a close eye on water params too, in case the little guy didn't make it.

Actually, the fact that the oto you can find is not as active is a good sign. Once they get settled in, they become much more sedentary. You will even, after seeing one sit in one place for what seems like hours, find yourself fighting the impulse to prod them to make sure they're still alive. It's normal and good, means they relaxed.
 
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#11 ·
I just recently had to tear down my 10gal and move it. My otos had to live in a bucket for a bit and they didn't exactly enjoy it. I moved them back to the 10gal and they are flying everywhere. I barely even saw them before. I'm assuming they'll start disappearing and settling in after a bit.
Otos are finicky little creatures and are good little cleaners. But when I bought mine they had just recently been caught and shipped and they still only had 3 in stock and one was dead before I could snatch him up.
Mine hate zucchini, idk they just won't eat it, and if Golem isn't busy guarding the algae wafer I put in the tank then they gobble it up like crazy.
 
#12 ·
honestly i started a npt so i could do water changes less. the plants are supposed to help break down most of the fish byproduct, the larger size of the tank dispersing its concentration and the lowly stocked tank to keep waste at a minimum. i dont think doing weekly religious water changes is nessacary but it depends on the needs of the tank, i can see reason if i had like 20 fish in the tank but i have 1 betta, 2 otos (1 might be dead, jumped out the tank or who knows), and 2 mystery snails. my tank may not be heavily planted as diane walstead's (the lady who wrote the book on npt's) but she stated that she was able to go up to 6 months without a waterchange, proving a good npt can for the most part support itself as a fully functional self enclosed eco system. but for now i will be changing out 25% of the water daily for the next few days just because of that dead oto i found in the tank.

my otos never touched wafers when i had them and ive started trying feeding the cucumbers again, but yesterday the 1 visible oto wasnt taking to it (i did microwave it for over a min to blanch it). i will eventually buy some more otos to make sure he's not lonely.
 
#15 ·
honestly i started a npt so i could do water changes less.
Lazy. Ha ha, just kidding. :tease: I totally feel you on that one.

But seriously, Diana Walstad also recommends once or twice weekly water changes (sorry, forget exactly how much) in the beginning until the soil matures. These are needed until the soil stops releasing excess nutrients and until the beneficial nutrients set up shop within that soil. Although, according to Walstad's theory, WC's are not needed to get rid of excess TDS's etc, they are needed in the beginning. I haven't actually read Walstad's book (I've heard reading it is as tough as chewing leather), but there's lots of accurate info on the AquaticPlantCentral forum if you haven't checked it out yet- she is/was a moderator there.

With the zucchini- don't lose heart. They'll figure it out. Mine won't even deign to look at the zucchini until it's been in the tank for 24 hours- after the first 24 hours, though, they start noshing. I leave it in there for 48 hours.
 
#16 ·
But seriously, Diana Walstad also recommends once or twice weekly water changes (sorry, forget exactly how much) in the beginning until the soil matures. These are needed until the soil stops releasing excess nutrients and until the beneficial nutrients set up shop within that soil. Although, according to Walstad's theory, WC's are not needed to get rid of excess TDS's etc, they are needed in the beginning. I haven't actually read Walstad's book (I've heard reading it is as tough as chewing leather), but there's lots of accurate info on the AquaticPlantCentral forum if you haven't checked it out yet- she is/was a moderator there.
oh i read that part: its 8 wks, which i did wait out before even planting and a little while after for placing fish
 
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