add more fish or stop?

[Matt Nace]

Otto's scientific name is otocinclus affinus, so oto is in it. They can also go by Dwarf suckermouth catfish.

You haven't gotten any algae yet?

Even when I had a single strip, I got some form , usually brown diatoms, which ottos love.

I suppose in the 10, it is very easy just to quick get it off, but even then, if you have some fake plants or ornaments or some javamoss/fern, your otto will have cover from the betta. My bettas only ever gave guppies, mollies, and other Labyrinth fish even a look.

For the 30, if your tank is cycled(is it?) , you will get, or eventually get some form of algae. With increasing the lighting, your algae will be green if the light output is enough.

The Home depot lights go like this.

They were in the light bulb section, and they were in boxes. They were sold as GE Plant light kit. They are supposed to be mounted on the wall, and are adjustable. Each light is 65 watts. I moved my aquarium back, so that they would shine right into the back, over top. I have a all glass hood, with two 20 watt strip lights, slightly over the front edge. I wanted to give the back as much open space for the lights as possable.

So they are about 6 or so inches from the top of the aquarium, then it is a little bit more to the top off the water level. They light differance is very nice. The back plants will soon rise out of the water, possable blooming, if I get the right ones.

$15 a piece, a suggest 2 if you are going to try it.

Light bulb replacments are the standard GE price of $6 or $7, as is all their lights mostly at my home depot.

Of course, if you dont like it, you take it back!!

I am sure you could mount them to anything that excepts a few screws or nails. Like hanging a picture!!

[AquaPsycho]

I have other tanks that dont have that many fish in them and if needed I can always move the fish. The clown loaches that I got are already pretty big.

[AquaPsycho]

ok so I added some more fish to my 30 gallon tank over the weekend.

This tank is currently unplanted because I dont have the money to upgrade my lighting yet.

10 neon tetras
3 black phantom tetras
2 yo-yo loaches
2 clown loaches

Im thinking that it might be a bad idea to add anymore. I dont want to overstock the tank but what do you guys think? I was thinking if I was to add more I would just add a couple more black phantoms.

also Ive noticed my clown loaches only come out when the light is off. (I have a fake piece of driftwood in there that is hollow and they love to hide in it)Is this normal or should I be worried?

[clothahump]

A couple more phantoms will not hurt, I have 5 clowns in my 45 gallon they come out from hiding in the evening (we do not use room lights, just the tanks) as they know they are going to be fed soon.
They are naturally shy fish that will dart of and hide at the slightest thing, with time they will venture out more. 8)

A few more fish will not hurt depending on your filteration. You could get away with putting 100 neons in a 30G if you had the right filteration. Of course it would get a little crowded. Another consideration is surface area of the tank. I usually calculate so many square inches of surface area per fish depending of the species unless you have plants. I usually like to have less fish in a tank because then I dont have to worry about overcrowding or other disasters to happen. In my 30G, I had 10 neons, 5 tiger barbs and 2 blue rams. Never had any problems.

[Matt Nace]

What do you do for algae?

Maybe a few ottos is a better fish to get, so when/if you get better lighting for plants you already have some algae eaters that work on the plants as well as the glass.

My Homedepot light are working good btw(65 watts per bulb at $15 each. 2 is nice, a 3rd might be even better. My sword has a runner that it poped out of the tank.....I dont know if swords flower though???

[AquaPsycho]

I went to get otto cats ( 2 for my 2 1/2 gallon betta tank) at petsmart and they had one there that I thought was an otto cat but it was the scientific name and the chick didnt know the common name.  I didnt buy any though because I was afraid that the betta might eat them.. what do you think? They were small like an inch. So far I have had NO algae on the tank but Im sure that will increase if I increase the lighting? Plus I still have a large snail in there that the loaches probably wont eat. Can you tell me more about your lights from home depot? Im looking for a cheap but effecitve lighting scheme

[ryanp15]

I don't suggest adding the ottos to the betta tank. With two of them and him in that small of a tank it's just disaster waiting to happen. ;D I would get some for your 30 though. And then just stop at that. You never want to overcrowd a tank cause it causes great susception to diseases and stuff. That's not good. Just wait a while. ;D

[Kristin]

It may be a little overcrowded- try to follow 1 and a half inch per gallon. if you do add some more fish, add them slowly. and also you will eventually need to have a bigger tank or exchange your clown loaches (they are the black and orange striped ones, right? i get confuseed sometimes : ) because they get pretty big, so you may be fine where you are.