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Hi, we have a brown hoplo catfish, Hoplosternum thoracatum. Yesterday, a good section of one of his whiskers was white and floppy, but it actually looked like he had another fish's crap stuck on it. Today, that part is gone and he just has a kind of longer stub with the rest broken off.
Has anyone encountered this before? Will it grow back? What can we do to treat and/or prevent this from happening again?
Thanks for any help.

Welcome!

Damaged/torn off barbels and fins do grow back, most usually in the same shape and form. This happens all the time - it's kind of like a shark or gator losing its teeth and growing new ones.

As for the prevention - too many things can be thought of and proposed. Good and right water (for that fish) is, of course, a must. Right substrate, as hoplos dig and sift all day long. No sharp objects. No fin/barbel nipping tankmates. No active, ongoing infections on the fish and in the tank. Balanced, right diet. Etc.

Viktor Jarikov wrote:Welcome!

Damaged/torn off barbels and fins do grow back, most usually in the same shape and form. This happens all the time - it's kind of like a shark or gator losing its teeth and growing new ones.

As for the prevention - too many things can be thought of and proposed. Good and right water (for that fish) is, of course, a must. Right substrate, as hoplos dig and sift all day long. No sharp objects. No fin/barbel nipping tankmates. No active, ongoing infections on the fish and in the tank. Balanced, right diet. Etc.

Hey, thanks for the reply. I definitely can do more work to keep the water quality better. Awhile back we had a bout of some sort of disease that affected some of the smallest fish but after some treatment and time it seems there are no more problems with that. I definitely will look into what kind of balanced diet these guys need in particular. I remember back in the day when I had oscars and a pleco and I was reading about all the kinds of plecos and all the kinds of different things that different species eat. I imagine it's a similar story with these dudes (we really like our little guy ).

But yeah, if it helps, the weird thing is that, before it fell off, it had turned white and it was all floppy. Next day, it was gone. Not sure if this makes a difference or not in knowing exactly what happened.
We hope he'll be fine... recently, when feeding the fish, he started losing his patience for the food to reach the bottom, so he swims straight up to the tank and just sucks the food right into his mouth.
Thanks again!

They are very hardy fish. I've had this happen to one of mine. I still don't know what caused it - I imagine it's some sort of accident, because no other fish were affected in any way, and it didn't happen again, and I didn't change anything substantial in the tank over the 4 or so years I've had them...

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Mats

If all it was but a single occurrence and everything else seems fine with the fish and the tank and tank mates, then there is no good reason for a concern.

He is not losing patience. He is merely learning, I'd say

The whitening and the floppiness I observed with some of my fish when the water parameters were not entirely right. But your case is different because in my case, it would happen over long periods of time and almost never stop.

Your English tells me you are not entirely Romanian?

Viktor Jarikov wrote: The whitening and the floppiness I observed with some of my fish when the water parameters were not entirely right. But your case is different because in my case, it would happen over long periods of time and almost never stop.

It has started happening to one of his smaller whiskers more beneath his mouth than on the side. We haven't had the tank for more than a couple of months so it's too early to tell if it's a one-time deal or if it will keep happening... in the meantime, it's more frequent water changes.

Your English tells me you are not entirely Romanian?

Yep, I'm an American who lives in Romania. ;)

A couple weeks ago I found a brown Hoplo in the ditch by my house. It rained a lot recently so I assume it got flushed out of a pond/lake. I thought it was "a new species" because the lower barbel is in the shape of a "T" but after some research I found out it is common after a barbel is damaged and grows back.

Here is a pic of the fish:

like to tag along this thread since it is on the topic of whiskers....

some 6 mths ago, i bought a cephalosilurus apurensis with a missing whisker that is on the side of its mouth. after so many months, the whisker is still not growing back why is this so? will it actually grow back out?

thanks

If they've been gone for a few months, then probably slim chance of the whiskers growing back.

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Mats

I too have had fish with missing barbels. Cannot tell you for sure why sometimes they do not grow back - too much is broken off, or infection, or genetic disorder, or...

Same goes for fins.