unidentified catfish species

Hi all,
I am a beginner fish keeper.
I like otocinclus and shrimps.
otocinclus fish is expensive in our place.
one day as a co incident we happened to notice a lot of catfishes near a small waterfall while having leisure time with my family.
please find attached pics and help me to identify them.
they grew about 2.5 inches max and are going in large groups. they were sticking to rocks and sometimes they came on to our legs.

I would also like to know if its a safe fish like otocinclus, apparently it behaves like otocinclus in my aquarium.

by the way my location is India>Kerala>Thrissur

Hi.
This isn't a catfish, but what's sold as a 'Algae Eater' - it's actually a species of loach (possibly Gyrinocheilus aymonieri)
HTH
Martin

MartinS said:

Hi.
This isn't a catfish, but what's sold as a 'Algae Eater' - it's actually a species of loach (possibly Gyrinocheilus aymonieri)
HTH
Martin

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Thank you very much.