Did you know fantastic help is an anagram of Planet Catfish? This forum is for those of you with pictures of your catfish who are looking for help identifying them. There are many here to help and a firm ID is the first step towards keeping your catfish in the best conditions.
Is this a positive ID of the Otocinclus Cocama (Zebra Oto)
It is the best match of the otos listed in the cat-elog but the line over the side of the body is more like a O. Macrospilus.. All 3 have no real vertical "bars", but the tailfin seems to match.[/img]
The "line over the body" is fright coloration: the first fish is scared or unhappy. And it's malnourished - otos should have a small pot-belly, an insunk belly like that means that it's starving. Try putting a slice of zucchini or half a brussel sprout in the tank (and leave it in there for at least two days).
I just got them today, someone picked them up or me in a distant FS. They were almost white when I first saw them but when I let them get used to the water in my tank the color came back bit by bit, and within an hour in the tank the color was like on the pics. I noticed that they were a bit skinny.
The otos are eating algae all over the tank but I'm going to put a slice in the tank right away
Sounds good. Best of luck with them, it can sometimes be difficult to get malnourished otos to start feeding properly again. That they're eating algae is a good sign.