PlanetCatfish.com

A few days ago I bought three C. aeneus.
They're doing great, except I just noticed that one of them seems to have his barbels eroded away.
I don't see how this could have happened in my tank in just a couple of days, so they must have been that way when I got them
The other two have really long, healthy barbels.
All of them are acting like they are healthy, and "happy".

This is my question : do you think the barbels will grow back?

Deb

Hi
Sorry to hear that.
Cory's barbels generally become infected due to dirty substrate.Once infected they will deteriorate and very rarely regenerate.

Apparently also caused due to extremely acid conditions.I found this.Paragraph 12 http://www.aqualink.com/columns/k-cory11.html

Hope the others don't go the same way.

Regards
Steve

Thanks for that link. i thought it was helpful.
My cories were in the store tank for three months, the guy told me. They've been in my tank for just a few days.
My substrate is not dirty or infected, but it doesn't hurt to do a water change, so I think I'll do that.

Thanks.
Deb

deb,
I had the same problem:
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hp?t=10935

Have you checked out the FAQ, there is a piece there covering the very problem.

Ian

Thanks for that thread, Bronzefry. It has a lot of good information in it.

Today I managed to observe my cory better, and I saw that he was holding his barbels flat against his "cheeks", but when he started rooting around in the gravel he extended them. I couldn't tell if he had two sets or not. If I get close to the glass he freezes, and flattens his barbels and I can't tell a thing. I'll keep looking, but it may not be as bad as I thought. It may turn out that he has two sets, but they are a little shorter than the ones on the others.

Ian, I tried to pull out the FAQ, but I got an error message. I'll try later.

BTW, my aeneus are light colored, a silvery pink, with bronze flanks and rosy cheeks. Their fins are broad and well fanned, almost reddish in color. They are very attractive, and nice and round in the body.

Deborah

i recently bought 6 peru green lines and i noticed that 1 of them has no barbel so far so good ...the fish is active and eating. my question is will this affect the fish in any way?

Eating can sometimes be a bit of a problem. This has stunted the growth of a few of the offspring. I started to watch them to see what was easiest for them to eat. The smaller frozen foods seem to work best: frozen tubifex, frozen daphnia, etc. Since I've moved them to the 10 gallon tank with the sand/planting substrate, they're acting more "Cory"-like (even though the tank is less than 1/2 the size). I'm hoping the change to foods that will fit their mouths will also help.