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Some of my cories have lost the dangly things on their mouths. I've put them in the hospital tank with some myxazin (anti-bacterial). They don't look like they're getting any worse, but I don't know if they're any better either.

Will their dangly bits grow back? How long would it take?

well, 1st off they're called barbels, and what kinda substrate do u have in the tank? and yes, under proper treatment, the barbels will grow back

Daka<<<<

The tank's got gravel in it. Regular sized, smooth, black. It's been there a while (6 months?), and they've never had any problems before.

I did get a little slack with tank maintenance for a couple of weeks. That tank might not have gotten gravel-vacced as thoroughly as it should have. I tried to keep up with it all, but I've had so many sick fish lately and so many babies, and uni and everything. I didn't mean to neglect them.

There are two cories (bronze and albino) whose barbels have completely erroded and now their mouth is just a yucky hole in their face. A few more have short barbels.

Its common name is barbel erosion. Most often a result of poor water maintence. Check the nitrates they are most likely high if you haven't done a water change in a while. The ones with no mouths left are probably permanently disfigured for life but the ones with shortened barbels can be saved do frequent wate changes for a while and then add melafix.

i agree with green..thats just sad...nitrate could be high...and did u say..u got lots of babies?? arent u overstocked?? contributing to the waste problem of the tank..that means frequent water change.

Poor water quality always seems to strike in the worst ways to remind us that keeping up with things is necessary...Do you water changes, and gravel vacs now...

For the quarantine tank do you have any substrate? If so, I'd suggest removing it...and keeping that tank spotlessly clean, now I'll run off and get Cali, Diane, and Cory Addict, one of them should be able to help...heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Hmm. If you have rounded gravel, then high nitrates will be your number one suspect. Do a DEEP gravel vac and a big water change ASAP. Then, put the Corys in a hospital tank with no substrate and dose with Myxazin if you can get it, Melafix if you can't.

Them, if you can get it, buy a huge pile of live food and feed your Corys lots of Daphnia and Bloodworm. Because in my experience sick fishes recover a LOT more quickly if they have live food.

If you have a sponge filter, check it for gunk in the sponge. Clean thoroughly in old tank water to preserve the bacteria culture. If you have a UGF, make sure the uplift tubes are cleaned and if you have a powerhead, de-gunk that too. If you have any inquisitive bottom feeders such as Otocinclus in there, put a cap on the UGF uplift tube to stop them swimming down it otherwise it'll be fish in a blender time when you put a powerhead back on the uplift tube. (Eek).

Hope these measures help mend your Corys.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Welcome to the lousy world of cory barbel erosion. This is going to be a long one

Rather than leave us speculating about nitrates, can you please get us a current nitrate value. Hi nitrates are thought to contribute, but in my case I did not have high nitrates and by that, I mean I maintained them less than 20ppm.

I moved 5 habrosus cories to a bare 10 gallon tank when I noticed their barbels shortening and not responding to increased water changes and melafix plus pimafix. I felt it could have something to do with not having done a deep gravel vac because I was in bad shape with asthmatic bronchitis (which is almost finally gone ).

One of the 5 cories was in severe shape with erosion into the face in such a way as to create an upper and bottom lip. In other words, the sides had also worn away. He died a week later. I kept the nitrates in this tank below 5ppm and ammonia and nitrites at zero. No ferts or additives other than Prime for conditioning were added.

At the end of 3 weeks, I noticed that I was losing another one and my original habrosus cory, Mini-Me, continued to lose her long barbels. So, this was not working. I began immediate treatment with Maracyn and Maracyn-2. That didn't work. After a few weeks of just clean water to see if the previous antibiotics worked, I tried a different one - Furacyn at full strength, which is nitrofurazone. It did not save the fish that was ailing severely. It did not halt continued erosion on Mini-Me. Previously, in the main tank, I had even given them medicated food (Metro-Med, Medi-Koi, and much later, Anti-Bacteria Medicated Food by Jungle). This food was crushed and sunk and I watched them eat it. There was no change.

I have tried a product with acriflavine (trypaflavin) thinking they may have a protozoan infection. I had noticed that they periodically were scratching. If something was making them flick against the sharp flourite in my main tank, then I could see how that would shred their faces. In other words, I don't believe gravel type alone causes erosion. I believe the combination of flicking plus sharp gravel does it. The acriflavine did not halt the problem. One problem I've had in identifying what is making them flick, is that it could simply be food & poop getting stuck in the gills as they sift. Cories don't spit food back out through the mouth, they do so out the gills and sometimes stuff gets hung up. Then, the roll and flick to dislodge it and continue on. So, it is hard to blame it on parasites when you don't know if they are there.

I truly need a scraping off the face/mouths of these guys but would need to drive over 2 hours away with them to have it done. I've been off on medical and am unable to do that.

As it stands, I have three left out of my original six (one passed in the main tank before I transferred them), and two of the three have erosion into the mouth structure. It is not as bad as the one yet, but I can't say that it is getting better or worse. Mini-Me, my original who had full length barbels before I introduced the other five, has stubs left that I'm trying to salvage, but slowly, despite all treatments, they continue to regress.

In my last desperate attempt to stop the erosion, I have added a one time dose of Ick-Guard-2 by Jungle. I added about 3/4 dose. It is a softer anti-parasite cocktail made for scaleless and sensitive fish and contains formalin, victoria green, nitromersol and one other ingredient I can't recall. The product also claims to be plant safe. My thought was still focused on some potential parasite. This was last weekend and I'm just doing water changes and waiting to see if Mini-Me shows any growth. I percieve there is a change, but can't be sure.

One thing that concerns me is that all three cories pretty much lay in one corner all day long which is highly unusual for habrosus cories. These types are usually active from morning until night as if powered by java. I'm planning on moving them back into the 20 long, where i have placed soft gravel on top of the rough flourite to see if it is psychological. I had Mini-Me for over a year with no other habrosus cories and she was highly active all by herself so I don't think it is a schooling issue.

I should add that of all that died, every one exhibited signs of septicemia at death - bleeding from the vent, at the base of the fins, and so on. This means that a secondary infection is resulting from this or the same bacteria which causes barbel loss is causing systemic infections.

One other theory out there is that cories with barbel erosion require high protein foods. It is best to feed them live foods like brine shrimp (small), frozen foods like small blood worms (chopped) and the like. I don't like Tubifex unless they are sterilized so I only buy Hikari (unless you hand raise them). I've been feeding my guys lots of blood worms to see what that will do. They need the protein to regenerate.

Now, this is just one case. I will tell you that before this happened, I inherited cories that had stubbled barbels and those barbels grew in my low nitrate tank. So, there is hope and that should be the first step along with high protein food. Also, food should be fresh (less than 90 days opened for dried). Mini-Me was one such cory with stubs for barbels when I got her, then they grew within 6 weeks. My trillineatus also had short barbels when I got them over two years ago and theirs grew to great lengths within 2 months of being in my tank. But, two of my 3 trillineatus cories now have erosion. Once again, two rounds of Furacyn have done nothing to halt it, nor has medicated food.

Deep gravel vac is defined as removing things from part of the tank (like 1/3 or 1/2) and vac'ing right to the glass, slowly and methodically to pull up all the gunk. You wait a good 5-7 days then do the next section.

Always try to minimize temp changes during water changes. I try to respect 1-1.5F (1C).

Last edited by Cory_Di at 11-Apr-2005 20:51