Food for Growing Whiskers

[Ozcattie]

Hey all,
Love this site for it's ultra detailed information... but... I can't find anything here on foods for getting the best whisker growth!?
My Pleco's don't need it & my feather fin are fine (healthy long whiskers)
But my poor little Sterba have been through every war...
I had a bad winter & scored 3 diseases in a month (sick fish from a Bad aquarium...) It started with Ich, which I got on top of, Then the columnaris took hold, finally velvet... I lost a few gourami's & everyone else was a bit crook
The end result was that I brought 3 sterba through it all- except one lost his whiskers from the colmnaris
?She? is eating well still & has enough mouth to eat food she stumbles upon, but not necessarily find it like the others.
I read here about recovery of whiskers, but like I said, I cannot find any articles on promoting whisker growth...
Anyone got info???

[MatsP]

The key to good health is a combination of nice clean water and good food. It isn't so much about WHAT food, but rather a mix of several foods of good quality.

--
Mats

[Ozcattie]

Any suggestions for foods??
I make sure all my fish get a mix of;
vegetarian flake (serra brand) I find this keeps colours strong (probably from food colouring??)
I have some high quality shrimp & krill bikies that I give a coupla times a week
Regular cucumber or zucchini
shelled & mushed peas occasionally
& I have a healthy colony of little bloodworms alive in both tanks, if fishies are hungry & can be bothered digging- feather fins PLOW the ground sometimes


I keep my water good enough to change fortnightly (or later), if I wish. But I try to stick to weekly water change & filter cleans.
I do Ph, nitrate, ammonia & nitrite tests = all good
But one of my Sterba has had a tiny little mouth for months now... That's the one I wanna help, the others have whiskers of different colours & lengths- majestic
Help my little Sterba!!! If we all clap our hands & say tinkerbell!?!?

[MatsP]

What sort of substrate do you have?
Corys do need smooth, soft and fairly light substrate to avoid the barbels being "eroded".

Did the fish have small barbels when you got it?
If so, it could be permanently scarred - the barbels do usually grow back after some initial damage, but if the fish is permanently kept in a situation where the barbels are damaged, its body will eventually stop growing new barbels. The same applies to fish that has constantly had it's fins bitten - eventually the body just says "I give up, I won't grow more of this stuff, it's no point..."

As to food, corys like meaty food, blood-worms is great, also meaty tablets (Tetra Tabimin, JBL Novo Tabs and similar), meaty granules (Tetra Prima/Discus Prima/Colour Bits and it's comparable products from other manufacturer).

--
Mats

[Ozcattie]

Eerrrmmmm substrate is small pebbles...
Just looked at your sterbai pics... huge boulders compared to that!?!?
My pebbles would be averaging 3mm diameter- too big??

Hmmm I looked at;
http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/im ... age_id=988
Which is same substrate.. so I guess ok... aaammmmnnn

[Ozcattie]

Oh & to answer your barbel question- yes all did when I got them
1 lost some whisker bulk, but is still whiskered
but 1 lost almost whole mouth, just a little tunnel left

[sidguppy]

fine rounded sand is the best; it should feel soft when you touch it underwater.

very good sand is the kind they use for swimmingpool filtration.