Cory's barbel loss

**Jambot** · 03-09-2009, 06:13 PM

Hey guys, I have 3 julii corys in a 20g long. Their barbels used to look very healthy until about a week and a half ago. The barbels are almost all white and look a lot shorter than they used to. I've had them for almost a year now and have never experienced this before. I perform weekly water changes/gravel vacuums, changing about 30% of the water. My ammonia and nitrite levels are zero and my nitrate is near zero. My tank is moderately to heavily planted with a flourite substrate. Other tankmates are otos, rummynose tetras, and swordtails and their fry.

It looked like a fungus to me so I started to treat the tank with primafix, but after a week there is no change. Any suggestions?

**bluebluecow** · 03-09-2009, 06:15 PM

Hi

one of the reasons I changed from gravel to sand, is that iwas told that the gravel wears the barbels down over time, someones bound to correct me though

liz

**Brookfish** · 03-09-2009, 10:34 PM

Originally Posted by bluebluecow

Hi

one of the reasons I changed from gravel to sand, is that iwas told that the gravel wears the barbels down over time, someones bound to correct me though

liz

No you are exactly right bluebluecow, cory's can wear their barbles
out foraging for foor in a gravel substrate, sand is much kinder to
their delicate barbles.

**Gemini** · 03-10-2009, 12:50 AM

Another vote for sand over gravel. Make sure that if you do use gravel it is the round type - no rough edges at all!!! They need their barbels to help locate food. Keep up the water changes and vacs.

**cer** · 03-10-2009, 10:34 PM

Really I think all bottom feeders should have sand for I substrate. But some people may disagree.

**Wild Turkey** · 03-10-2009, 10:37 PM

Sand is not the only substrate that is soft enough for corys, no.
I have always heard gravel can wear down their barbels, so i dont use it with them. Some people will debate otherwise, but regardless they do a lot better with substrate they can dig into, and will be a lot happier being able to. I use eco complete for my corys and have never had any problems. Most aquatic soils dont present much of a problem.

**AABatteries** · 03-11-2009, 03:17 AM

I have the same problem, but I have eco-complete, so that's the weird thing. I was going to make a thread then saw this. BTW sorry to hijack your thread.

**Wild Turkey** · 03-11-2009, 04:34 AM

Originally Posted by AABatteries

I have the same problem, but I have eco-complete, so that's the weird thing. I was going to make a thread then saw this. BTW sorry to hijack your thread.

Eco complete used to have quality control issues, specifically batches that were too rough and the granules too large. I have one such bags in one of my tens i'll take out one day. They seem to have gotten better lately

**AABatteries** · 03-11-2009, 11:41 AM

Its mostly pretty fine, but there are 3 or 4 areas with bigger stuff, that is gravel size, but they're pretty round.

**labnjab** · 03-11-2009, 04:47 PM

We seem to be having good luck with play sand. We've had our cories since the start of last summer and all of them have long, healthy looking barbels. Some are close to a 1/4 inch or more long