This is an Otocinclus. They are sucker fish, who like algae and swim quickly. They're very hard to catch. Otocinclus, at least the dwarf kind, get to be only about 1 1/2 inches long. This one is probably an inch at the most right now. S/he is sucking on the inside of the tank. I took this shot from the side of the tank looking out the front. The one on the left is him/her. ;) (duh.) S/he's got two reflections, for some reason. For those who've been wondering: Yes, the plants in my tank are silk plants. I can't stand the plastic kind, and the real ones get mauled by the critters, so I went with fabric. :)
I was going to wait and see if I got a better shot later today, but got bored this morning, so decided to try to photograph the fish again. Eventually, I'll be able to get a shot of the Zebra Danios! They swim just as quickly as the Otocinclus do, but the Otocinclus do tend to stop for a while, occasionally.
I'd also like to get a shot of one of my Neon or Cardinal Tetras, but the flash just makes the colors on them explode and it looks like the pic is blurry when it's not, it's only the reflections shooting every which way.
7 comments:
I actually like the duplicate and triplicate fish! I think a polarizing filter would get rid of this duplication, no? I kept thinking that the name of the fish had something to do with ears. "oto" as a prefix medically refers to it, so I thought maybe something about the fish was related to ears. Silly me.
You have some amazing creatures to photograph!
That's a really good shot. I kept thinking it was 'octo...' How bad is my reading!??! And wondered what he had eight of to be named that... Lovely little guy!
Well caught on camera! Nice angle :-)
Alright, when I was a kid I had one of these in a tank with other fish. I cleaned the tank one day and for the life of me couldn't find the sucker fish. It took an hour to clean the tank and as I was putting the ornaments back in I found him clinging on the inside of one of the ornaments. Amazing thing is when he hit water and loosened up he survived! :)
Is this what you also call janitor fish? My bro had one of these before it was much uglier and lumpier than this one.
[quote]Whalelight said...
Is this what you also call janitor fish? My bro had one of these before it was much uglier and lumpier than this one.[/quote]
You might be thinking of a plecostamus. They poo more than they clean, and they get HUGE. They can grow to 6 feet in the wild! I don't feel it is responsible to keep one in an aquarium, except the dwarf kind. Plus, you have to worry about their spines, one prick by those and you'd need to go to the emergency room (or so I'm told). I don't have any of those. Coryadora's do a much better job keeping the tank clean, as do Otocinclus and snails. :)
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