Otocinclus Sp.

[Mat H]

Hi all,

Wondering if ayone has any ideas on Species for this Otocinclus?

It has me a little stumped as some have similar colouring but different shapes e.g. for example Flexilis.

No discernible lateral line and colouring (brown) is distinctly different from any of my other Otocinclus, as well as the pattern of course.

Thanks
Mat

Edit: Perhaps not Otocinclus Sp. at all, Hisonotus Leucofrenatus / Loricariidae Sp. looks like a possible candidate. I was, in hindsight, limiting myself in my original search to Otocinclus Sp. so will browse Planet Catfish again!!

 

[Oldguy]

Wondering if ayone has any ideas on Species for this Otocinclus?

Could be:
Black Otocinclus Hisonotus notatus much depends on size.
If so then females are larger than males which are quite tiny. Nice fish sometimes tank bred in the UK. Peaceful, but mine never really mixed with my otos. Females about the size of female otos.
What ever you have its looks like nice fish.
Good luck with your search.

 

[John q]

Wondering if ayone has any ideas on Species for this Otocinclus?

As always on ukaps the question has been asked.

A Tale of Two Roma's

“I’m going on an adventure!” Well, not exactly an adventure but thought it was high time I started a journal, hopefully it will show others how our tanks progress and often morph from one path to another without us even realising it; failing that it will provide a useful place to document how...

www.ukaps.org

Still have them in my tank.

Yet to get a guru to identify them. 🤔

 

[Mat H]

Could be:
Black Otocinclus Hisonotus notatus much depends on size.
If so then females are larger than males which are quite tiny. Nice fish sometimes tank bred in the UK. Peaceful, but mine never really mixed with my otos. Females about the size of female otos.
What ever you have its looks like nice fish.
Good luck with your search.

Thanks, I'm definitely leaning towards Hisonotus of some sort, and he is, relatively speaking, really quite small compared to the others.

I will have to investigate further as I potentially have a couple more from a batch of 15 'Affinis' I purchased back in July.

They all came in small and were spread across various tanks. In a positive twist of fate, other than a filter intake mishap 😢 (now resolved), I haven't actually had any losses and that's despite using Excel in one of the tanks - against my better judgement of never using it with Cory's or Oto's.

 

[Mat H]

As always on ukaps the question has been asked.

A Tale of Two Roma's

“I’m going on an adventure!” Well, not exactly an adventure but thought it was high time I started a journal, hopefully it will show others how our tanks progress and often morph from one path to another without us even realising it; failing that it will provide a useful place to document how...

www.ukaps.org

Still have them in my tank.
View attachment 210900

Yet to get a guru to identify them. 🤔

Thanks John, lovely tank and pictures of the different species!

I'll keep looking but think Oldguy maybe on to something, the difficulty is misidentification on many sites and then PlanetCatfish which I see as reliable source doesn't always have any or good identitying photos.

Searching instead for dwarf suckerfish did lead to more meaningful results, though for some of them I need to work my way through translations (example attached).

 

[Mat H]

I'll have a better check tomorrow but a least four of questionable Sp. Identification in two of my tanks. I'll have to juggle them around at some point to put the ones that look alike with each other - get better shots and investigate further.

Apologies, lights out on one of the tanks already and for some reason my phone is crap at close up's [albeit great at fake'ish moon shots and a Zoom to die for - unless it's close].

 

[Polly]

Have had one of these little beauties since 2018.
Wish I had a group as it doesn't seem to hang with my other Otos much and I'm sure I'd see it more if it had company.

From all the research online I've done, it seems to be Hisonotus notatus, but is recorded in the Baensch Aquarium Atlas 2 as Microlepidogaster notatus, synonymous with Hisonotus notatus, Otocinclus maculicauda, Otocinclus notatus.

 

[John q]

From all the research online I've done, it seems to be Hisonotus notatus

That's the conclusion I came to in Feb 22 when researching these beautiful fish, although that was only me guessing. I keep meaning to reach out and message Hans Evers to try and get a positive id but somehow never get round to it.
Either way @Polly your fish look super healthy and well fed. 👌

 

[Mat H]

Have had one of these little beauties since 2018.
Wish I had a group as it doesn't seem to hang with my other Otos much and I'm sure I'd see it more if it had company.

From all the research online I've done, it seems to be Hisonotus notatus, but is recorded in the Baensch Aquarium Atlas 2 as Microlepidogaster notatus, synonymous with Hisonotus notatus, Otocinclus maculicauda, Otocinclus notatus.

View attachment 211151View attachment 211152View attachment 211153

Ah, thank you Polly, much appreciated and this aligns with what Oldguy said too.

I have had similar observations in that they don't really seem to school with the others.

As mentioned I'm going to try and move them all together this weekend. I think I have at least five of them now in different tanks, perhaps more.

The only stick in my wheel is that I managed, for the second time in two months, to break a glass lily pipe and push it into my hand instead of the filter pipe [glassware is clearly not for me], so I'll either be doing it one handed or very carefully! - on the plus side when I got to the hospital, eventually and days later, they were quite impressed with my superglue skills!

 

[Polly]

Thanks John Q it's just the one fish. First photo a few months after I got it, and the other 2 from this year. I've had it since 2018.

Size is between my male Oto and the females. Certainly not as big as the females. It's quite a dainty fish.

Mat H I'm so happy to hear about others with these fish. Can't believe your luck at having a few of them. If you have a big enough group
maybe you'll get some breeding action ?

When I got mine, it was the only one in a batch of wild Otocinclus. No one wanted to buy it. They no longer buy in wild sourced fish., so I haven't found any others.

I hope your hand heals well. I love the look of glass lily pipes but know I'd be buying a new one every time they needed cleaning !

 

[John q]

Size is between my male Oto and the females. Certainly not as big as the females. It's quite a dainty fish.

Just managed to get a pic of one sat next to an otto. Should give an idea for size comparison.

 

[Polly]

Hmmm. I think mine is possibly a little bigger, but it can be difficult to say from photos.

I've been thinking about the naming. For mine, I think Hisonotus leucofrenatu s would be a good descriptor leuco meaning white, frenatus meaning bridle. And looking at mine there are very light lines from the eyes to the nares. The lines actually start from behind the head. You can see them in the image below.

 

[Mat H]

Hmmm. I think mine is possibly a little bigger, but it can be difficult to say from photos.

I've been thinking about the naming. For mine, I think Hisonotus leucofrenatu s would be a good descriptor leuco meaning white, frenatus meaning bridle. And looking at mine there are very light lines from the eyes to the nares. The lines actually start from behind the head. You can see them in the image below.
View attachment 211220

I would say that one is a female. Some of mine appear to be slightly different colours and I'm not sure about patterning (I'll check) though it's difficult to tell without side by side comparisons and I fear I'll need a better camera for that though I will try my other phone which I think has a better macro camera.

Not sure I'm going to move them now, I know my main larger tank has at least three but checking my smaller tank for them, which was a bit like Where's Wally (attached), it seems I have at least five and after observing them for some time it appears they are more solitary, whereas my other Otocinclus will sometimes be found congregating in groups on the glass or even shoaling with Cory's I didn't once see them together despite there being a number of them.

 

[Mat H]

Hmmmm... received a differing ID of Otothyropsis Piribebuy (Loricariidae) for one of mine (attached) - I haven't checked into it yet but they seemed to know what they were talking about.

Now I'm even more confused... it's seems correct identification for some species is not quite as easy as it may first appear!

Edit: having checked PlanetCatfish I note that the common name for Otothyropsis Piribebuy (Loricariidae) is Black Oto, Lg2, Otocinclus Negros! Otothyropsis piribebuy (Loricariidae) Cat-eLog

And yet further down the rabbit hole, and coming somewhat of a circle following the PlanetCatfish Lg2 reference we have:

Other Names:
Brown Otocinclus, "KBO" ("Kleiner Brauner Oto", LG2

Scientific Name:
Hypoptopomatinae sp. (new genus: LG2)
Synonyms of this species are Otocinclus "negros", Otocinclus "nero"., Otocinclus "paulinus". All of them are incorrect, as this small Loricarid is not a member of the genus Otocinclus. It's most closely related to Hisonotus spp., but due to certain differences it does not fit that genus either.

Piranha-Info.com© :: "Otocinclus" sp. "Paraguay"

www.piranha-info.com

 

[John q]

So the plot thickens.

I keep meaning to reach out and message Hans Evers to try and get a positive id but somehow never get round to it.

I decided to approach Hans and sent him these pictures.

I explained I'd originally thought they might be Otothyropsis Piribebuy, but was now leaning more towards Hisonotus notatus, or maybe something else.
He very kindly replied and agreed they were infact Otothyropsis Piribebuy. H. notatus, he explained is a slender species and seldom exported these days.

So after nearly 2yrs of trying to identify these fish I might finally have an answer 🤷

Not sure if this helps or hinders you @Mat H

 

[Mat H]

So the plot thickens.



I decided to approach Hans and sent him these pictures.

View attachment 211520
View attachment 211521

View attachment 211522
View attachment 211523

I explained I'd originally thought they might be Otothyropsis Piribebuy, but was now leaning more towards Hisonotus notatus, or maybe something else.
He very kindly replied and agreed they were infact Otothyropsis Piribebuy. H. notatus, he explained is a slender species and seldom exported these days.

So after nearly 2yrs of trying to identify these fish I might finally have an answer 🤷

Not sure if this helps or hinders you @Mat H

Hi @John q

Thanks for getting back, quite happy to settle on Piribebuy at this point! 😀

I was told similar in that Hisonotus are very rare in the trade but that Piribebuy is exported from commercially available areas and breeds relatively easily in captivity [if I can get this going on I'll be happy]

 

[John q]

and breeds relatively easily in captivity [if I can get this going on I'll be happy]

This isn't a bad article on the breeding of said beasties.

Breeding Otothyropsis piribuy | digitalaquarist

schester89.wixsite.com

 

[Mat H]

This isn't a bad article on the breeding of said beasties.

Breeding Otothyropsis piribuy | digitalaquarist

schester89.wixsite.com

Thanks @John q most helpful, breeding side lots of things for me to consider to give them a good life! 👍