Thank you, Otos  4/6/2009
To whom it may concern,
<Come on Irene>
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise on Otocinclus vittatus.
I have learned much valuable information from your website. I have raised these fish but sadly with no success.
<Not easily kept admittedly... Take a beating through collecting, holding, shipping... and then need a rather narrower range of water quality, consistent... and high DO to do well>
I do not want to give up on the possibility of raising these fish successfully so I am trying to research as much as possible about them as much as possible until I plan to get more. At one time, I had one baby
successfully survive for about a week until it disappeared. I assume it was devoured by one of the
other fish in the tank. The full grown ones did not survive much longer then a month. A couple of times I saw an Otocinclus vittatus move above the water line to suction against dry part of the glass aquarium. I am not
sure if this was normal.
<I do consider this a "normal" part of their (waterfall climbing if you will) behavior>
It seemed strange. One of the fish that did this I believe died as a result of being dried out.
<This is/would be unusual IMO>
Anyhow, thank you for providing thorough information about this interesting fish. I would appreciate any further advice that you may provide me regarding how
to raise them.
Sincerely,
Irene Steffen
<To keep gathering information, folks personal experiences as well as scientific. Bob Fenner>