Otocinclus as Discus mate

[GrooFish]

Hi there,

I have a planted aquarium, and as normal algae grows.

I already have 5 Crossocheilus Siamensis and 10 shrimps to eat algae, but i need some"one" to clean the glass.

I thought of Otocinclus, but i read that it can be harm to discus because they tend to attach themselves to discus sometimes.

Is this true, it is a mith?

Anyone has any experience that can tell?

Thank you!

[AmberC]

Well as far as I know siamese algae eaters get extremely aggressive and do not make good tankmates for discus.

As for the otos.. I have always kept otos with discus with no problems, but there are others here who have had nothing but trouble with the little guys. And the same goes for bristlenose plecos. Some keep them with no problems and others find they attach to their discus.

IMO it depends on each particular fish and how much they are fed. If you keep your otos or your bristlenose well fed (IE.. vegetables, algae wafers and such supplemented now and again) then you will not have trouble with them attaching to your discus.

HTH!
Amber

[Superfish]

I have never had Otos w/ discus. I am just currently trying out some true SAEs. I have been told that its the Chinese Algae Eaters, Flying Fox and BN plecos are harmful...

Really, its all about experiementing. I know someone who is keeping a BN pleco w. the discus and everything is fine.

Also, I think that it depends on what you are willing to risk???

[senso]

I have true SAE, ottos and shrimp in the same tank. No issues at all other than the fact that the SAE prefer the bloodworm, but in between feedings they do a great job on the algae as well

Check your overall water and lighting and see if you can somewhat reduce the algae, or add more plants.

In my case I reduced the number of feedings and the lighting intensity. Helped a lot

[crazie.eddie]

IMO it depends on each particular fish and how much they are fed. If you keep your otos or your bristlenose well fed (IE.. vegetables, algae wafers and such supplemented now and again) then you will not have trouble with them attaching to your discus.

HTH!
Amber

I agree. If a fishes diet is not supplemented with the right nutrients or is starving, it will look for it elsewhere, aka other fish. Provide enough food for the fish so it will not want to snack on the discus. Otherwise, once it's grown attached to eating the slime coating from the discus, it may be difficult to get it away from that.

I think the people who do have problems with ottos or BN's attaching themselves to their discus probably think "I do not need to feed my otto/BN since it will just eat algae in my tank". WRONG!

[Debbie]

Wrong Eddie, I have always fed my plecos and ottos. Ottos are one of the few fish that I have seen attach themselves to my discus (the other one was a farlowella). I have kept many plecos in with my discus in the 25 years I have kept them. From what I hear is that there are two populations of ottos, one population won't bother other fish and the other will, seems liek fish slime is a part of its diet.

True Siamese algae eaters are a good fish o put in with discus, be careful that they are the real ones sometimes the flying fox is confused with them as they look similar
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/sae.htm
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/fox.htm

notice the yellow stripe between the black and silver on the flying fox.

[lhforbes12]

I agree with both Amber and Debbie. I have O. vittatus in with discus and no problems at all, but I have heard of others having problems with different species. Also almost any suckermouth can be a slime eater, I think that is mainly the individual fish though, some will some wont... not species specific.

[Dissident]

FF (Flying fox) are fine with discus, CAE (chinese algae eaters) are a big no-no, they will attach to a discus. Ottos have been know to attach to discus, but I never had that happen, BNplecos have been fine for me.
If you get a BN be sure to have some wood in there for him to eat.

SAE and FF will quickly get the taste for discus food and not eat algae as much.

Ottos and plecos don't seem to like tank temps of ~90F so if you need to med be sure to have a QT tank handy.

[Debbie]

SAEs are one of the best algae eaters there is, they even eat the red beard algae...the black stringy stuff. Flying fox get mean as they age, they will be fine when young, but not when they are adults...I had a few at different times that terrorized a tank of Tanganyikans...if they intimidated the Tangs, then imagine how discus would be. Besides that they aren't good algae eaters ever.

[Dissident]

Odd. I have 3 FF in with my discus and they never even look at them...
Might be the tank size (110g) and they have plenty of room? They spend most of their time cleaning the Jungle Valls and playing int he filter output to care about the 7 discus in there.

[crazie.eddie]

Wrong Eddie, I have always fed my plecos and ottos. Ottos are one of the few fish that I have seen attach themselves to my discus (the other one was a farlowella). I have kept many plecos in with my discus in the 25 years I have kept them. From what I hear is that there are two populations of ottos, one population won't bother other fish and the other will, seems liek fish slime is a part of its diet.

True Siamese algae eaters are a good fish o put in with discus, be careful that they are the real ones sometimes the flying fox is confused with them as they look similar
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/sae.htm
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/fox.htm

notice the yellow stripe between the black and silver on the flying fox.

What do you feed your Ottos? How many ottos do you have? Maybe you may have too many of them, that they do a good job cleaning up the tank and getting food, that they starve. I've had various species of ottos with angelfish and had no problems. Several friends of mine have different types of ottos as well with their discus and had no problems.

[Debbie]

I fed my ottos algae wafers. You might have ottos from the population that doesn't harass the discus. I have had other ottos that didn't bother them too, but after the problem I had with them I wouldn't risk it again. When I had the ottos I had them in a 125 gallon and there were 12, definately not over crowded. I don't know if the different population thing is correct, it is what someone told me, and it would make sense since the ones I had the problem were extremely aggressively chasing the discus to feed off them.

Odd that you haven't had a problem with the flying fox, everyone I have talked to and everything I have read says differently, just shows not all fish are true to profile.

[crazyforaltums]

fliying fox are bad bad fish to put with anything IMO. i work at the LFS and the lady i work for put the foxs in all of our 5 plant tanks and the foxs killed fish in every tank. taking out bosminni ranbows, blue rams, flagfish, cardnals
and angels, and a group of tetras. they seem to like hair algee but not worth losing my angels and discus. i wont even sale these to people b/c they are so bad