SKSuser

Well, they're back at it, and as promised I'm taking more pictures.
It all began with a water change and the disturbing of the driftwood they like to hide out under when they're not feeding.

I'm uncertain whether this is the same male, as I believe I have two, but I'm fairly sure the female is the same one as the previous time. I first noticed her bloated as well as being constantly out in the open several days ago and thought, "oh boy. here we go again." Sure enough, today I noticed them attempting to embrace. I don't believe she's quite ready, as no eggs are resulting from the encounters. This happened last time. They "practiced" for several days before beginning to actually lay and fertilize.

Here she is. Her belly is much larger than usual.


Their preferred spot. Last time they congregated on the swords, as they are now, but eventually moved to the underside of an anubias. Now the anubias is under strong current. It'll be interesting to see if they move there this time as well.


Something I noticed this time. Her "ovipositor" as the betta people would call it, is very protruded. Its unlike the button type one on the German Ram I've watched. Hers is very pointy, and there appears to be a trough running down the back of it from where it attaches at her body, creating an appendage whose cross section is rather v shaped. Sorry for this horrid pic of it, they don't remain on the glass very long, as it is merely a waypoint in their game of follow the leader.


She is always the leader by the way, and appears to pick the spots. He follows her around. I saw her attempt to lead him from the glass to a sword plant on another side of the tank. However, he returned to their previous area of the sword plant pictured above. He seemed lost for about 45 seconds, trying the areas where they'd already been, He finally must have smelled her out, as she was lying in an area which he couldn't see. He made a Bee line over there and they started right back up
I don't know why they try so many different places. Perhaps they are looking for the current to be correct, or less lighting. Perhaps they are selecting many suitably places and waiting until egg time to decide if conditions have changed.

Perhaps this time I'll remove the predators without otherwise disturbing the tank, and see if any fry survive. However, I think they'll need a healthy supply of infusoria to really thrive.
As with last time, its a little cold outside to be coming up with green water on such short notice. My hope is that someday they'll do this during the summer when I can adequately feed the resulting fry with the appropriate food.

fishman9809

what type of ottos are they? Otocinclus Affinis?

Tex Gal

How cool is that?! My Krib babies find enough to eat off the plants in the tank. I never have fed them. When they are old enough they eat what the other fish in the tank eat. I wonder if you remove the predators if you will find the same thing will happen for you. Happy watching!

dirrtybirdy

thats pretty awesome!

NeonRob

Please remove other species. You are writing the book on this spawn for other hobbyists!

Bert H

Fantastic! I wish mine would do that. If you have a successful spawn and can raise them to adolescence, I'm sure you'll find plenty of willing buyers here on the forum.

SKSuser

Heh. Thank you for the excellent question. I've always assumed they were affinis, as they came from Petsmartco after my friend ordered that species. Perhaps, given the big box stores' reputation, we should confirm that. Is anybody good at telling by a look. When I tried to get into oto identification, my head started to spin.
Also, thanks to the rest of you for your kind comments.

Bert,
How many Otos do you have, and is at least one of them larger than the rest given that they're the same age, etc? I'm wondering if the reason more people don't have success at breeding Otos is due to the fact that they don't have a pair. So many people's otos die off. Maybe one sex is much more fragile than the other, or less common to begin with.
Its not like I'm doing anything particularly special, but my results seem to be rather unique. When unique results come from a seemingly normal situation, I get suspicious. I listed my water parameters in the last thread about them breeding, and nobody seemed surprised by them. However, mating was induced by a water change last time as well. Yet, I've done several water changes between the two spawns with no results.
I did have my last old apple snail finally die. That prompted me to do the water change. Perhaps... they reacted to that. My situation is so far from a laboratory setting, that all the variables become discouraging.

Anyway, last evening my wife successfully got the better of the final predator in the tank. He's now terrorizing my guppies in the 20 long.

As you can see from the photo, he was fairly interested in the breeding process but they could care less whether he was there or not. If I'd snapped the picture a second later, we'd have seen some action though, because he got really curious and swam up over that leaf they were above. He was right on top of them before they moved. I'm just glad we got him out quietly.

Throughout the night, I checked on them. The male and female were grouped together on the glass each time I checked. However, they seemed to be resting. I don't believe they mated while I was asleep. When they're in full mating ritual, it gets pretty frantic as you can see in the video on the thread from the other time they bred. Over lunch, I'm sure to be watching them. I'll give an update, and maybe a picture if anything amazing happens.

fishman9809

they might be a mix, they have spots and affinis don't. I'm no expert, so don't trust me.

JanS

Wow, congrats! Great photos!

Fishman123

That's really amazing. I only wish mine will breed in the future, they are such an ideal fish to have.