Mysterious missing ottos

[NatureNut]

OK... I swear I'm being invaded by aliens. I have had 3 ottos completely disappear in my 33g in the past week. Yes, I was dealing with a possible gill fluke problem, so they might have died, but they're GONE. I've dug through the filters even though there's no possible way they could get into them, I've moved all the ornamental stuff and plants around, searching. Nothing... nadda! And not just one but 3! THEN to make things even weirder, the ones I had in my 16g have started disappearing too. I just got them last week from Patrick. I found one stuck to the filter intake, and wasn't too surprised to have a loss because the travel time was quite long for them and I'm know they were in some pretty good ammonia concentrations by the time they got here (I tested). After finding him I did a careful count and there's another otto gone. They were all there yesterday. I moved things around, checked filters etc. Nothing... nadda! Could it be the little green men are after otocinclus now instead of people?

In the 33g there's swordtails, emperors and a pea puffer along with about 3 ghost shrimp and a plethora of snails. In the 16g there's dwarf cories and a betta. Could they consume ottos that quick? I KNOW there was at least one more otto in each tank as of yesterday. You'd think I'd at least find a bone somwhere...

And because I know someone will ask... All ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are fine. First two are 0 everywhere and nitrates are only trace levels in all my tanks when I tested yesterday and the same today.

Good thing I moved my son's class fish back to school today... never know if the little green guys will come after bettas next! :shock:

[windeindoiel]

Well I admit I have them in a heavily planted tank, but usually when my little fish die I have no idea where they went, I never find a body. Oh except the weird black crusty thing I found while dissembling my little planted tank that I assume is a dwarf puffer that died about 2 months ago.

[NatureNut]

Mine's not super heavily planted, but there's a fair bit o' greenery in the 33g, the 16g not quite as much. I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that loses fish, though. I just worry about their decomposing bodies putrefying things.

[johnsmith]

I had 3 ottos for quite a long time and there were often stretches where I wouldn't see them for weeks. This was mostly when I had them in a lightly planted 90g so there was quite a bit of room for them to get lost. Still, they seemed to really blend in to their surroundings. Then again, I never searched for them thoroughly but I did look everywhere and often couldn't find them. Hopefully you'll get lucky and see them again in a few days.

[BigA]

Has there been a ransom demand made yet???

[Vallisneria]

They could have died and been eaten by the fish, shrimp and snails. So there would be no body.

[NatureNut]

No ransom notes yet, but then if they're trying to call they might have problems getting through since I'm stuck on dialup out here in the boonies. :P

I'd guess they were eaten too... just seems really fast, especially in the 16g where I know they were all there the day before and then boom gone. 3 ottos, 5 dwarf cories and a betta would look a bit fat and happy after eating an otto in 12-24 hours, wouldn't they?

Oh well, the whole mystery thing at least offsets a bit of the sadness... I HATE it when fish die!!!

[Guppygirl]

One thing I would do is look very, very closely at your plants (in between stems, under leaves, near roots or bases of plants). Ottos as algae eaters may just be firmly attacted to a nice piece of algae and unwilling to move so that you can see them. I had one that would stay all day in between the tall thickly bunched stems of a plastic plant, rarely saw it until it moved near dusk. They also tend to get stuck in those kind of plants when they die, so the body if there is one could be there also. Hope they are still alive, fish are fairly good hiders when they want to be.

[NatureNut]

Yeah... I have some hope now after hearing that a couple of you have had ottos go missing for long times. We're always playing "find the otto" when we do our daily fish counts, but we've always eventually found them, unlike this time. I'll do a WC in the next couple of days and shake things up good.

[BooUrns!]

I used to have the same problem finding my oto's in a 33G tall. They would blend in to the sea fans (dead) I had as decor. I also lost a few when buying them from a certain LFS when they were on sale. My apple snail came along and stripped one down to the bone just a few hours after it had died. All I found was the front half and the vertebral column.

I didn't buy any from MyKiss as I've read that otocinclus are finicky about being transported. Losses in a shipment are usually high from what I've heard from LFS's.