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November 24th, 2008
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| | Fish Master
| >:( Barbels gone
Yeah... my cories rubbed off their barbels. Is that really bad? Will they grow back? I used to have them on marbles, but when they started losing barbels I moved them to the tank with gravel... and that didn't help, obviously. | 
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November 24th, 2008
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| | Fish Mentor
| I will do my best to find out for you ok PinkFLoyPuffer.
Sorry I Cant Be Of More Help 
From Matt | |
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November 24th, 2008
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| | Moderator
| That's odd that they would lose their barbels on marbles. The biggest problem is that if there's something that is damaging their barbels, it's going to keep doing it. Of all of the substrates I know of, I think EcoComplete would be best, but that's an extra expenditure.
If they are given respite from whatever is hurting them, I would think the barbels would grow back. | |
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November 24th, 2008
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| | Fish Keeper
| I stumbled onto a fairly interesting article last week that indicated barbel erosion may not be from sharp substrate as commonly (myself included!) thought. According to skepticalaquarist.com, the erosion could have a bacterial, fungal, diet, or even water chemistry cause.
Unfortunately, that makes it hard to help you pin down what's causing your cories to get injured. Quote: Barbel erosion. Generally Cories are among the least demanding fishes. One problem with keeping Cories under imperfect conditions, however, is that their barbels may erode. The ineradicable folk tradition has long been that the barbels were being "worn away" by sharp gravel. I think that a fish that was prone to suffer this way could only evolve in habitats with very fine silty bottoms, and that consequently it would have a limited distribution, whereas every stream catchment area throughout wide stretches of the Amazon-Orinoco basin has its own Corydoras species— and often two of them, co-existing side by side. How could any organism evolve so delicately mis-tuned to the varying sands and gravels of its streambed environments and yet be successful over such a wide area? If you think some streambed gravels are rounder than others, keep a 10x loupe by you and check out all the streambed gravels you can find.
Some Cory keepers feel that barbel erosion is more likely due to bacterial/fungal attack, and that it may be reversed when water conditions are improved. One mention of bacterial barbel erosion, in C. concolor, is in an article by Allen James (of www.scotcat.com) archived among "Catfish of the Month (April 2000) at www.planetcatfish.com.
Cathy Quinones posted at rec.aquaria, 3 June 1994, that her C. julii lost their barbels but regained them when their diet was improved (with tubifex); see http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/corydorus.html.
Bacterial infections are generally secondary. The primary culprits in barbel erosion may be skin flukes. A report of barbel "detachment" in ictalurid cats being aquacultured, which is ascribed to necrosis from gyrodactylus (fluke) infestation, is mentioned in a Massachusetts Coastal Zone Management white paper. Could these parasitic trematodes be an issue in Corydoras barbel erosion also?
My own experience suggests that barbel erosion might be related to long-term elevated nitrate levels. Some of my C. schwartzi have experienced eroded barbels when nitrates remained about 40 PPM. Is there a connection here?
Almost like an answer to these concerns, RTR posted at AquariaCentral, 30 Aug 2001:
"This particular myth has been around almost as long as I've been keeping fish, and it refuses to die.
"One of my favorite test tanks used crushed glass substrate (not kiln-softened) and a school of C. arcuatus corys (personal favorites) with fractured glass slab "rockwork". A part of the same shipment of corys went into a nearby planted tank with which I had been having problems with a high-organic substrate. After just a few months, guess which tank had barbel erosion? And a few weeks after unifying the schools, guess who started recoving their injured barbels while living over crushed glass? I had in the past experienced occasional barbel problems in corys (and Brochis-- they are more sensitive IME), and always had credited it to maintenance, and was able to clear it with good tank upkeep. That fact and loss of dwarf cichlids kept in organic-substrate tanks cured me of ever having a high organic substrate again. That problem tank was the last, and I'll never have such again.
"I don't use the crushed glass any more either. I really just set it for a temp tank for the test. In the year+ it operated, I had no problems with it, except that it grew algae. I do have some crushed black glass substrate, but it has been kiln-softened to round the sharp edges.
"Corys in the wild live over a wide variety of sustrates, from silt/mud to rocks, and they are adapted to substrate digging. You would expect some abrasion of the barbels over anything but fibrous peat (as used for killies), but if the substrate is clean, they will not suffer the secondary infections they will over polluted substrates. The secondary infections are what erode the barbels, just like fin rot does for the unpaired fins of free-swimming fish.
"They do prefer more sandy substrates, and will dig more freely in soft sand than in gravel by a wide margin. But they can be kept over either without damage, so long as it is clean, and they can suffer erosion over either if they are not."
| edit: I have to agree with sirdarksol, marbles shouldn't cause that type of injury... isn't that why many betta owners use marbles, is so that the trailing fins don't get damaged? | |
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November 24th, 2008
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| | Fish Master
| I'd love to switch to some sand, but problem is, both of my FW tanks have bettas...
And thanks for the article Mathas. My nitrates are always below 10... so I don't think it's water quality issues. I do have some tubifex though, I'll try feeding it to them.
Last edited by pinkfloydpuffer; November 24th, 2008 at 05:50 PM.
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November 24th, 2008
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| | Moderator
| For the record, I have never had problems with bettas and sand (though I know that others' have). My bettas almost always stay on the top half of the tank.
Either way, EcoComplete wouldn't be a problem. It's got a larger grain, and is mostly organic in nature, so it's less likely to block the stomach. | |
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November 24th, 2008
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| | Fish Master
| I'll have to look into ecocomplete. Thanks SDS | |
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November 24th, 2008
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| | Moderator
| Another great thing about the stuff is that there's no rinsing involved. It's ready to go into the tank. I don't know if I can ever bring myself to use anything else for a freshwater tank, simply because of the amount of effort it saves. | |
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November 24th, 2008
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| | Fish Helper
| Am I the only person that thinks we need to write a Dr. Seuss book about losing your "Barbels on Marbles"? Seems like it might be fun... | |
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November 24th, 2008
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| | Fish Master
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