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well, a few of my julii corys are comming up with missing barbels...they have been eroding slowly, and im not sure what to do I have mixed small and large substrate, nice and smooth, and only a few of the corys are having problems. their barbels are all but gone, otherwise they seem healthy though. I have been keeping up with 30% a week water changes and the substrate is sized 1/8 an inch up to 1/2 an inch.

current tank population and peramiters: 29 gallon tall

1 dwarf sunset male gourami
1 bolivian ram
6 lemon tetras
7 corys

7.0 ph, no measurable ammonia, havent got a hardness check yet, normally soft though, and water source hasnt changed (RO water from petstore w/ mineral addatives i put inafter getting the water,then the water sits for a few days before being put in the tank)

the barbels have slowly eroded for the last couple weeks. are they agressive feeders or is this bacterial or what?

thanks in advance for the help!

Half an inch is far too large. A thin layer of fine sand is best for corydoras, and by thin, I mean like, really, really thin.

Keep up the water changes & try to add some Sand on your Gravel. By time, the Sand will penetrate & the Gravel will be on top again.

If you can, put them in a seperate tank & with just a few mm of Sand & you can monitor them better.

Goodluck & keep us informed, please.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

yeah, most of my subsstrate isnt half an inch, but some is as it is mixed...most of it is smooth small pebbles about 1/8 of a inch.

I have tried to find finer substrate to no avail so i am taking everyones advice and getting some sand to add to the mix...what techniques will i have to use to gravel vac after i add the sand?

thanks for the help and i will keep everyone updated.

If your substrate is more than half an inch thick, I would not add sand to it.

I have found that my corydoras are much happier in my sandy bottom tanks nthey love to bury there noses in it and push it around

well, i was planning on pulling out some of my substrate (substrate is about 1" deep currently) and adding some sand into it. is this a good or bad idea? can anyone tell me for sure thats it is even the substrates fault? only 3 of the corys are having barbel erosion...

There is some debate on this actually

there was another thread on this that actually went over an experament were he kept cory in several differnt substrata and his conclusions were mixed. I think that there has been a lot of debate on weather or not its caused by overly dirty gravel. So I can't give you any serious definitives.

well, when i do my water changes i use a gravel vac to pull out the water to keep the substrate clean...i might try doing 20% waer changes twice a week for a few weeks and see if that helps, cause so far i have been told many differant things regarding sand.

My advice? Check your nitrates.

Anything over 20 ppm should cause your antennae to twitch. Anything over 40 ppm should be an alarm bell for immediate action.

My Pandas receive 50% water changes and deep gravel vacs twice per week. Result? Nitrates rarely climb above 10 ppm. Cue happy Pandas.

Plus, some species have different reactions to different substrates. I've seen several instances where Corydoras habrosus have been afflicted by barbel erosion when kept over sand, and this affects fry particularly acutely. Bronze and Peppered Corys on the other hand can be kept over a wide range of substrates with no major worries, provided that those substrates are checked out beforehand to be free of overly sharp particles.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I also keep several Cories in my heaviy planted tank. It has standard-size (4-6mm) smooth gravel. I didn't notice that the barbels on my Cories had worn down until I added a new Cory the other day. There is a distinct difference between the barbels on the new fish and my old ones.

But . . . all my fish seem fine.

I wasn't worried until I saw this thread!

Is there any serious threat to my Corie's health if their barbels are worn down? I am constantly changing water, vacuuming gravel etc. so there is no problem with tank cleanliness.

Thanks,
Joe

well, i will hold off on substrate changes for the moment and i am going to take my water in again to get it tested. hopefully the added water changes will help!

update:

i went in and had water tested. other than ph being a lower 6.5, everything was good, nitrates were at 18ppm, and no ammonia...so, it may have been the dirty gravel down where i couldnt get at under the driftwood and rock (pulled them out for a thurough tank cleaning yesterday, or perhaps the gravel isnt smooth enough...its all polished smooth though...