1. Water parameters
a) Temerature: 77 degrees
b) pH: 7.4
c) GH
d) KH
don't know exact GH/KH, but LFS told me it was very low.
e)Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, leavels.
zero as far as I know.
f) Water change frequency
Weekly or more (if it looks like it needs it).
2. Tank set up
a) Size. 10g w/ tank divider (was worried about their tankmates)
b) Substrate. Gravel. I heard this was bad for corys and I heard other people say they'd never had problems with corys, standard aquarium gravel and barbel loss.
c) Filtration. UGF. I've also heard that this is bad for corys, but I don't remember where.
d) Furnishings. A medium sized plant, a pot.
e) Other tank mates. Baby platies (only about 2 weeks old) The adult platies live on the other side of the divider (They were very pushy and much faster eaters- including any sinking food I put in.)
f) How long has it been set-up? several months (or over a year if you count when I had to move)
3. Symptoms / Problem description
I have a couple of new corys (had em around a month now).
Since I've had them I've noticed that they have definately lost their barbles (I heard this could happen so I kept my eyes open, but I don't know what to do about it now.)
They seem healthy otherwise, swimming normally and eating well, but I don't want them to get infections or anything to go bad. Ideally I'd like to make sure the barbels can grow back.
In addition, one of the corys had something happen to its tail. Part of the lower fork of the tail is missing and I don't know what happened.
I really like these little guys and I want to take good care of them, but I'm not sure if I've identified the problem or not, and I'm not sure how best to fix it.
I am planning on changing from UGF to a hang-on-the-back type, but I haven't had time to go look for one due to obscene amounts of schoolwork.
Any thoughts on the best course of action?
