Types of otocinclus help!

squishylittlefishies

I have a shoal of 5 little otos, but I think there are 3 different types. The newest pair - Leo and Spot are beautiful and much friendlier than the rest. They are a very dark grey color that touches the stripe, on top, and almost a leapord spot pattern. Their stripe stops before the tail and there is a big white gap, then the normal black on tail. The middle two - Flash and Choui are just like them except that the speckeled patern is less defined-closer to solid. The major diff is the stripe and color goes all the way from head to tail.
All of my otos have really long pointed snouts except for choui's which is short and rounded... don't know if that's signifigant.
My original pair(one died, just Squishy now) both had a totally different look. His color overall is lighter. On top he is brown- almost a golden color! They were both much much fater than all the others. There is a very thin line of white between the top and the stripe.Stripe goes all the way to tail.
Sorry, I know that's a lot of info, but I looked at the species on planetcatfish and their pacs were utterly useless! So, any ideas?
Can diff types interbreed?
Do they enjoy eachothers companyy just as well?
I will try to upload pics eventually!

Thoth

I don't think that much is known about Otos and their breeding habits; many species have not been reported to have been bred. Because of this, I think the chance of interbreeding is low. If you are attempting to bred, I would make sure that you have 5 or more of the same species; they are suggested to be kept in groups of 5 or more. I would feed them at least twice a week with fresh veggies and daily with algae wafers. The breeding report I read was with soft, slightly acidic water. I would try to mimic Cory breeding and see if that works. 50% water changes weekly and adding water that is cooler than the tank.

In my experience, Otos are commonly kept in very small numbers ( less than 3) and are under feed ( no veggies). This could lead to the lack of breeding.

I dont know where you are located but in the states, I have seen on multiple occasions, gravid females for sale at Petsmart. I hate to buy fish from them but I may just buy a group of six and see if I can get them to breed.

Please post some clear pics and I will be happy to see if I can help you ID them. I enjoy IDing cats.

Byron

I've had spawnings of my "otos" though not deliberately; it just happens. I have the "common" oto, which in our profiles I listed as the species Otocinclus macrospilus, which is likely the same fish as what some sources call Otocinclus affinis. This latter species is no longer in Otocinclus, having been moved (along with O. flexilis) in 2001 by Isbrucker et al. into Macrotocinclus.

Some years ago, around 2003, I had introduced three otos into my 90g tank. Some months later, I noticed there were five otos, and two were just a tad smaller than the other three. The only explanation is that two of the originals spawned, and two fry survived. It was a very heavily-planted tank, with fewer fish than I would normally have had in such a large tank. Aside from water changes and feeding, I had rather let this tank go; when I tore it down to reset a couple years later, I had an Anubias with a rhizome over 2 feet in length.

Byron.

squishylittlefishies

Hey byron, I know this is way off topic but I've been dying to know, what is the fish in your profile pic? Its cute!

Anyway, thanks for the breeding info, good to know! I'm not really TRYING to breed, just wondering if they could/would.
Still working on the pictures!
Thanks

Byron

That fish is Centromochlus perugiae, it is in the profiles.