Hello fellow enthusiasts! I wanted to start a journal so we can track my little Oto friends. This is late in the game for them as they have been breeding for a spell, but we just joined the site so bare with us. I'll have to provide a cliff note version to get caught up to date.

History: I had a 10g tank set up for awhile for testing purposes. I eventually settled in on a plan and went plants only for this guy. I had the usual diatom problem but thought nothing of it and just kept scraping them off. Months later, they just never went away. I then decided I needed a little assistance. I went down to the LFS and bought two Oto's. At the time they were the same size so I couldn't tell them apart as far as male and female. I added a batch of yellow shrimp a few days later (good deal...couldn't pass it up). I then converted this tank to a high light tank and started doing EI dosing for the plants. One day while doing a water change, I spotted something small on the glass. Upon further investigation, found out it was a baby oto. A the rest is history from there. The breeding continues today and still getting babies. The trick has been getting them to grow up fully. Think I'm closing in on that as well.

Tank Specs:
Tank: 10g
Substrate: SMS
Lighting: 20w T12
Photo Period: 10hrs (0800-1800)
Ferts: Was using EI dosing method for dry ferts but after babies were found, determined PMDD + Phosphates were the best way to go.
DIY Co2 Jell-O method
Heavily planted with various species of plants (need to compile a list)

Tank Parameters: (These stay pretty much in this ballpark)
Temp: 74
PH: ~ 7.4
NO3: ~ 40
NO2: 0
NH3: 0
KH: 6
GH: 10

Will post some pics shortly. I'll start with some past ones and update from there.