Sabi

Hi ppl

is this a chinese algae eater or an otto?


Thanks!
my LFS ddnt knw and i ddnt either....

sirdarksol

Looks like an oto to me, but I'm not positive. I have heard that the two can be confused when the algae eaters are young.

Sabi

sry the pic too far but everytime i want to take a pic his gone!
the guy at the lfs said it doesnt grow much bigger, but i've doubt in whatever they say...

griffin

it's kinda hard to tell from that far away.

there was a website that compared the two, but i can't seem to find it right now. :/

COBettaCouple

He sounds like an oto.

sirdarksol

If the guy at the petstore is right/telling the truth, FLBettaCouple's right. It's an oto.
However, unscrupulous pet stores will sell algae eaters as otos, especially around now, when otos are difficult to get ahold of (or so I have been told by a couple of LFSs).
I don't know what the purpose of this would be, as, in this area at least, otos go for one to three dollars, while algae eaters go for as much as five dollars.
The other "however" is that the store's supplier could be lying to them, or even just mistaken.

Tom

From what I can make out, it looks like a CAE to me.
Tom

armadillo

I myself think he looks like an oto. But it's difficult to make out.

Sabi

Thanks ppl. I really hope his an otto not a CAE! There are 2 guys at my lfs that i can say knows more or less what they say, but when i baught the otto? it was another guy that helped me out as the others whther busy. I'm going to try to get a better pi of him today hopefully. His always hiding when i come near the tank...

griffin

maybe try later at night? mine are all over the place at night, but in their hiding places during the day

Sabi

heres a better pic...

Jim

looks like an oto. The biggest difference is size. Oto's are tiny, I have 8 and none is over 1". A chinese algea eater gets like 3" I think.

Butterfly

Go all the way down to the bottom of this article and it tells how to ID a CAE there is a bit of comparison of the it and the Oto I believe.
http://www.plantgeek.net/article_viewer.php?id=9
Carol

Jacko

I believe that your fish IS a CAE, I google imaged it and found this one that looks quite a bit like yours.

http://www.aqua-fish.net/imgs/fish/104.jpg

Hope this helped.

COBettaCouple

I think that comparison of them at the bottom of the page Carol linked to should provide a definite answer to what type of fish he is, since they really do look very similiar.

Tom

The pic confirms my theory that it is a CAE and not an oto. Sorry if you were hoping for it to be an oto.
Tom

Maxamas

I use to have two CAE, and the one is the picture is a CAE with out a doubt.

Jim

after seeing the pic jacko posted, I'm putting my $$$ on the CAE

COBettaCouple

what are the current vegas odds? yea, i think i was wrong and it's not an oto.

Butterfly

The way I tell when I'm out and don't have a picture to compare it with The stripe on the cae almost looks rough on the edges( because of the faint black edging on the scales) and the Otos stripe looks smooth. I know I'm nuts but it works for me.
Carol

Sabi

No you are right there is a difference!
And u guys are right its definitely a CAE. Mine looks exactly like the pic Jacko posted! Thats the last otto hunt for me, i doubt they have ottos(my lfs). I'll stick with plecos. They maybe huge wasters but they clean algae and dont suck on other fish. !
Thanks guys!

Jim

When I decided to get oto's, it took a while to find them. They're tiny, almost like tadpoles. But after I knew what I was looking for I found a bunch. I originally bought 10, and so far only 1 had died. They're fun to watch... they sort of school... kind of. You want a little school of 5 or 6. I don't think they get much over an inch, so unless you're already overstocked, get a few instead of just one, trust me.

Sabi

If i ever see them i'll definitely t ake your advice and get some.i never knew what cae looked like that was the mistake. But now that i know i can see the diff between them!
Thanks!

COBettaCouple

they are such similiar looking fish, that's why so much info is out there on telling the difference - so many people have gotten CAEs instead of otos and mostly because the pet store didn't know the difference either.

Cody

otto