Otos In A New Tank

Hi there,

Don't panic, you have not sentenced them to an early demise.

There is some good information here
http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/otocinclus-macrospilus/
This suggests that they don't do well when being transported, and that they are delicate when initially moved into the tank. They need a lot of food, and they mainly feed on algae & micro-organisms which grow on surfaces in the tank. A mature tank is good because it has settled and has a time to grow a lot of food sources for the otos.
Make sure that your water parameters are also very good, and your temperature, pH and hardness are suitable for them.
The link suggests things that you can use to add to the diet of your otos to keep them happy.
One of the other things that you can try is growing algae on rocks in another container on a bright windowsill. I do this for my young bristlenose plec and blue-eyed ancistrus.
I get the impression that otos can never have enough food, so provide them with lots of different things.

I don't have any otos (yet  ), and I'm not the most experienced keeper, so I'm sure that the others will be able to give you better and more specific advice. I just wanted to offer some initial help until the other get here.
Best of luck and please keep us posted on progress. 

...and I'm quite happy to send some algae-covered silk plants off to you once a week for them to "clean up", then you can mail them back to me once they've feasted on them.
 

Aah I guess you were joking about the plants... I am a bit slow on the uptake 

Hi Sue
How do I go about doing that? Do I just stick them in some water on a sunny windowsill?

You could try popping an Indian Almond (catappa) leaf in (it'll sink after a few days) and that will help grow little micro-organisms and be generally beneficial.