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I have noticed recently that some of my cories are missing their barbels. The gravel is smooth, there is no ammonia or nitrite, and nitrate is less that 20 ppm. Could there be another cause for the barbel erosion?

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They shade the glow of it with their mossy-misty costumes,
They wear masks of silk, porcelain, brass, and silver,
So as not to mislead with their own, ordinary faces.

It could be from the LFS when you bought them and they havn`t re-grown properly yet or just from rubbing it on the gravel and eroding it over time

Did you get them without barbels, or have they disappeared over time?

I'm so adjective, I verb nouns!

Same question as tribblehappy and also how long have you had them?

Do you think the cory could have been attacked by another fish? Something could have bitten them off...

I got the cories a couple months ago, so anything pertaining to the LFS doesn't seem likely. I think they had barbels when I got them, but I think they were small.... I'm really not sure.

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They shade the glow of it with their mossy-misty costumes,
They wear masks of silk, porcelain, brass, and silver,
So as not to mislead with their own, ordinary faces.

This is a topic of hot debate-the casuse of barbel erosion.

There are a few theories on this-
one being rough substrate
two being high nitrates
three bacterial infection
four fungal infection

I personally do not subscribe to the rough substrate theory as I have personally seen barbel erosion in fine sand, and even bare glass. I have also seen barbel erosion in tanks with virtually no nitrates. I personally lean towards the fungal and bacterial theories (fungus is one of the main causes of death in cory fry if not properly taken care of), causes by the onset of some stresses to the cory or its environment. In my personal experience with well over 20 cory/brochis/scleromystax species I have found in tanks where temperatures were elevated more than briefly (remember most cories prefer cooler temps) and tanks where the substrate was not moved around periodically (gravel vacs, or stirring of sand) have the most issues. Curiously I personally have never seen barbel erosion in sterbais myself (one of a few corys that tolerate higher temps well), although admittedly there are more than a couple other species I haven't personally witnessed it in either. The good news is I have seen barbel regrowth in many cases almost equalling their original length. In most, this was after rigorous cleaning of the substrate, and increased water changes, although water parameters themselves had not changed as a result of the gravel vacs. In my experience dosing meds had little to no effect, although melafix had some effect in a couple occasions (more often than not it was unsuccessful). To sum this exceedingly long winded post up, yes I do believe there are other causes of barbel erosion.

I just looked in the tank today and saw this. None of the other cories have this.
Janna attached this image:
[img]http://www.fishprofiles.net/attachments/412840.jpg"]

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They shade the glow of it with their mossy-misty costumes,
They wear masks of silk, porcelain, brass, and silver,
So as not to mislead with their own, ordinary faces.

That looks bacterial. Do you notice redness anywhere else on the fish? From your picture, it looks like the adipose fin is a bit red.

You should get some Maracyn-Plus and treat the tank, to heal the cory's barbels and hopefully prevent the illness from spreading.

[span class="edited"][Edited by Cory Addict 2004-08-11 03:34][/span]

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

It does look bacterial, treat it with some Maracyn +. Very nice lookin Cory by the way, what species is it?

C. trilineatus.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Thanks Cory, note to self, buy some when I get space or a new tank

sorry,but I just saw some of your pictures in another post. The one with the ragged looking dorsal fin, and the sore on its side. Is this the same fish, Or another from the same school. If its another cory you will probably want to administer some antibiotics right away!! if its the same one...sorry about your loss.