otocinclus or flying fox?

fish_gal77

fish_gal77

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Sep 13, 2005
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Orange County, CA
I just purchased a few fish at my LFS to take care of the algae in my little 5g (desk top) tank. I told the guy I was looking for otocinclus and he said that they *might* have some tiny ones in one of the tanks. He took quite a while looking at them because he said they also had flying foxes in that same tank... he even took one of the fish out and examined it and said that yes it was an otto. I have never kept ottos and the fact that he took so long to determine what they were concerned me a bit. They are now in the tank swimming and eating happily.

I did a little searching for pictures (while slowly acclimating) to see if I could find identifying features. From the pics I found it seems rather difficult to distinguish the difference. Can anyone tell me what to look for? I really don't want Flying foxes in this tiny tank since they get far too big for it! The fish are really tiny (about 1/2") at this point and they don't seem to be attaching to the glass, just poking around in the gravel. They are a greyish/silver color with a horizontal black stripe from nose to the point where the tail starts (not through the tail). They also have a smaller black stripe on the lower part of the body starting behind the belly and going to the anal fin. THe top of the fish reminds me of a cory, with what looks a bit like armored plates - this gives the appearance of striping across the top of the body. The mouth has double barbells on it.

Any help is really appreciated. I'll try to bring my digital camera tomorrow and take a photo...
 
This is a great site about otos with some great pics:

http://otocinclus.com/

You'll be hard-pressed to see the barbels on an oto. They are very tiny, even in the bigger adults (big=1.5 inches). They are just barely visible at the corners of the mouth and you can only see them when they are attached to the glass since they don't stick out at all. They also have sucker mouths and don't apear to have any kind of plating on the tops of their heads. Otos are also generally brownish/green in color with a black stripe running along their bodies. This stripe is flanked by two yellowish stipes, one on either side. I don't know what flying foxes look like but it doesn't look like you have otos. I'd look at the above website, print out a pic. and take that and whatever it is you bought to the fish store and get your money back. Then, I'd look for a new LFS.
 
thanks for the help. By the time I got the fish in my tank I was pretty sure they weren't otos I guess I was just HOPING they were! I was hoping that the reason I couldn't see the sucker mouth is that they are so tiny... :duh:

grrr... this store really seemed good, I don't know how such a "mistake" could be made. I mean if they really look that much alike, why keep them in the same tank!!

I don't mind the look of these fish NOW, they are actually rather cute but if they are Flying foxes then they will get far too big for my tank. I would take them back but the store is about 30 mins away and I won't be able to get there till next weekend. Perhaps I can keep them until they get bigger (and clean my tank a bit ;)) I also have the ability to shift them into another tank (or two separate tanks) so I may just do that. I am sure I've seen otos at a store very close to me but for the life of me, I can't recall where it was :rolleyes:

I know this makes me sound like a complete newbie - which I don't think of myself as... it's just that I've never kept or even been aware of otos before. All the posts about them on this board have convinced me of their virtues, I just had to give them a try.
 
Flying foxes are not true algae eaters.
Flying foxes are easily mistaken for SAE (Siamese Algae Eaters, which the name imples are true algae eaters).
The flying foxes would do very little to help with your algae.
 
Flying foxes are not true algae eaters.
Click to expand...

Actually the flying fox is a decent algea eater, no where near as good as an SAE, but not useless either. They tend to get big and mean, but mine is just past 5" and still eats predominantly algae. The tank he is in will handle big and mean very well, and he keeps the bba and hair algea in check for me.

I fully agree that you should take them back when possible, and it seems odd to me that an LFS employee would mistake them for otto's.
 
I don't know how long ago you purchased them but I would call the fish store, with a receipt handy if possible, and explain the situation. Tell them that you did some research because you were having doubts about what you got and that it turns out you were not sold what you wanted and that the fish are something that you can't handle. Tell them that you're 30 min away and would like to know if you can bring them back at more convenient time in the very near future (either for a refund or exchange or credit). See what they say. Even if you don't have a receipt see what they say. Describe the guy that sold them to you (or give his/her name if you know it). Maybe he'll even remember you. Who knows? It's worth a shot and you have nothing to lose except a few minutes on the phone.
 
well the flying foxes (or whatever they are) seem to be doing a lot of nibling at varous surfaces in the tank so I like that. Hopefully they will do at least a little cleaning before I return them.

I had done some research on otos before going shopping for them but I guess not enough. I trusted the people at this store since they really seemed quite good and because the fellow took so long examining them, I figured he must have known what to look for. They were also in the final day of a HUGE 4 day sale so perhaps that played into it somehow...

In the future I will do much more research if I am uncertain about a particular species. I didn't realise that SAE, otos, and Flying foxes *can* look so similar, now I know!!
 
Yeah, shopping for fish can be tough. You have to place a lot of trust in the employees at the LFS and, if they're not good, they can really make things pretty bad for you. I would just do as much research as possible and go to the LFS prepared with background info on the fish you want. If they start spewing out "facts" to contrary to everything you've read, maybe look elsewhere. Also, before I even planned what fish I wanted in my tank I went to the LFS, looked at all the fish that they carried, and wrote down the names of the fish that I liked. I went home, did some research, and made final decisions based on that. I then cut and pasted images of the fish onto a Word document and printed it out, with their names below the images.....kind of a pictoral shopping list. This was good because it ensured that I was getting EXACTLY what I wanted. And, if the store I was at was out of a particular fish, I could go to any other store and show them what I wanted. Just a suggestion on what you might want to do before you buy any more fish.

Good luck!
 
Ghostshrimp55 said:
Yeah, shopping for fish can be tough. You have to place a lot of trust in the employees at the LFS and, if they're not good, they can really make things pretty bad for you.
Click to expand...

I had the same problem the other day. I went to my LFS to buy a couple Otos and somebody had dumped a shipment of flying foxes in with them. I had to convince the salesman that there were two different fish in the tank. After much arguing and pulling a picture book off their shelf, I finally got what I wanted.
 
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