# White spots in Otocinclus?



## parotet (7 Feb 2014)

Hi, I have just bought 4 Otocinclus and I have seen this:


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## parotet (7 Feb 2014)

Sorry... this:









Only this specimen has so many white dots, in another one the white dots are only on the fins and in a third one there is only one or two disperse dots on the back.
It is the first time I have these fish and I am not sure if this is a normal color pattern (honestly their back colour is difficult to describe in terms of color, it's a kind of irregular greyish-whitish colour) or the white spot disease (I really don't know if this disease is common in this fish)...

Any idea?

Cheers,
Jordi


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## Michael W (7 Feb 2014)

Definitely something wrong. I can't tell what it is but its usually advised to wait a while if the shop has just got them in. They are hardy fish but the process in which these are caught and the journey to the shop will usually leave these fish fairly weak hence initially prone to disease and death.


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## parotet (7 Feb 2014)

What about Lymphocystis disease? In this Spanish website you can see some pictures of an Oto with this problem... actually they say that it looks like the White spot disease but it isn't...

Limfocistosis, enfermedad de limfocistosis

In English: Lymphocystis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## parotet (7 Feb 2014)

This pic is better:


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## dw1305 (7 Feb 2014)

Hi all,
I'm fairly sure it is "Velvet". "Caused by dinoflagellate parasites of the genus _Piscinoodinium_". <http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FA/FA04100.pdf> and common in Loricariids (usually wild caught ones).

You need to treat it as soon as possible, "eSHa exit" works.

cheers Darrel


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## parotet (7 Feb 2014)

Thanks Darrel!


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## Spnl (8 Feb 2014)

Looks like white spot (Ich) to me, based on the size of the spots and presence on fins, esp you say only on fins on one fish.
Velvet caused very fine spots, like a dusting.
But treatment is similar and you need to treat that right now, that is quite a severe infection. After one more life cycle you will have a very severe infection.


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## dw1305 (10 Feb 2014)

Hi all,





Spnl said:


> Velvet caused very fine spots, like a dusting.


 Definitely could be white-spot and true for most fish, but on Loricariids you get these yellow spots.

There has been a thread about it recently on "PlanetCatfish" <View topic - What disease is this?>. Another thread <View topic - L369 didn't travel well> suggested most cases of "White spot" and Velvet in Loricariids are actually caused by another parasite, _Chilodonella. _Both "Barbie" and "Apistomaster" are very experienced plec keepers, so one (or both) are likely to be right.

cheers Darrel


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## parotet (10 Feb 2014)

Hi all, unfortunately the specimen on the picture died this weekend. I think he was too weak to adapt to a new tank. For the moment the rest of the fish seem ok.

If it helps for other hobbyists with the same problem... I observed in detail the dead one and I saw that the dots were not exactly the same I can see on the backs and fins of the other (alive) ones. The colour is different, yellowish on the dead one, with some kind of "volume" and round shaped. The "normal" dots are white, with no volume nor regular shape.


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