Ok this is weird… Cory lost his whiskers…

[Magnum Man]

Got 3 Cory’s I’ve had for about a year, noticed one today, acting and looking strange turned out he had no whiskers… he’s in a tank with normal rainbow fish, a couple oto’s, and a couple mystery snails… everything has stayed the same for the last year… only couple things I can think of, is there is a small piece of expanded aluminum, that a seller grafted a mat of Java moss to, maybe he hooked himself in it??? There are no crabs, crays, shrimp, or lobsters in the tank… gravel is rounded approximately 1 cm river rock, so smooth edges… this is high alkaline water… I haven’t blended any RO into it yet, because most are rainbow’s

Thoughts???

He had been just kind of sitting around haven’t noticed him eating today… can he survive without his whiskers???

 

[powerdyne6]

What kind of Substrate do you have?

Edit: I missed the part where you said you had smooth river rock

 

[Colin_T]

pictures?

I would remove the aluminium or at least make sure there are no sharp edges on it.

 

[Naughts]

Obviously the "alkaline" water is not ideal, are the GH and pH within the recommended range for your species (check on Seriouslyfish)?

Cories on gravel commonly get bacterial infections which erodes the barbels and causes an early demise. You can switch the substrate to sand and, short term, make sure any gravel is scrupulously clean.

 

[GaryE]

I hate to say this, but I have seen Cory whiskers erode in tanks with very poor water quality. It happens with newly imported farm fish kept in bad conditions. It's something you sometimes see when the bags arrive, with less expensive Corys (albinos etc) that are tightly packed. The whiskers simply erode.

What's the water change routine?

 

[Magnum Man]

Weekly, at most every 2 weeks, but only if I run out of time… almost always weekly but that is high alkaline water yet, I haven’t started running RO over to that side of the house yet

He did eat this morning

 

[10 Tanks]

Got 3 Cory’s I’ve had for about a year, noticed one today, acting and looking strange turned out he had no whiskers… he’s in a tank with normal rainbow fish, a couple oto’s, and a couple mystery snails… everything has stayed the same for the last year… only couple things I can think of, is there is a small piece of expanded aluminum, that a seller grafted a mat of Java moss to, maybe he hooked himself in it??? There are no crabs, crays, shrimp, or lobsters in the tank… gravel is rounded approximately 1 cm river rock, so smooth edges… this is high alkaline water… I haven’t blended any RO into it yet, because most are rainbow’s

Thoughts???

He had been just kind of sitting around haven’t noticed him eating today… can he survive without his whiskers???

Hello Magnum. Barbels (whiskers) can heal and in most cases can regrow. If you're keeping a very clean tank, then something like a decoration or piece of driftwood is abrasive. Next large water change, take a good look around the tank and remove anything you think might be rough or sharp. If the Cory is otherwise healthy and if you're removing and replacing a lot of water, it's healthy, then I wouldn't fret for this.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[Sgooosh]

Weekly, at most every 2 weeks, but only if I run out of time… almost always weekly but that is high alkaline water yet, I haven’t started running RO over to that side of the house yet

He did eat this morning

Hello Magnum. Barbels (whiskers) can heal and in most cases can regrow. If you're keeping a very clean tank, then something like a decoration or piece of driftwood is abrasive. Next large water change, take a good look around the tank and remove anything you think might be rough or sharp. If the Cory is otherwise healthy and if you're removing and replacing a lot of water, it's healthy, then I wouldn't fret for this.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

I agree!
I hope it goes well Magnum Man, I had this problem when I first had cories 3 years ago, and they healed and some are still alive today

 

[Byron]

Gary is probably the closest to the likely issue. And it is the gravel substrate. Roughness is one aspect but not generally the prime one for barbel loss; it is bacteria that occurs in a gravel substrate that does not tend to be an issue with sand. This is one reason of several why cories must be over a soft sand substrate. Food and organic stuff gets down in the gravel, the cories cannot reach it (the food), and the gravel being an inferior bacteria bed allows bacteria to reproduce and this erodes the barbels of substrate fish.

As for whether or not the barbels will regrow, it depends on how far gone they are. Obviously getting the poor cories off the gravel is needed. Many years ago before I understood this, I tried Flourite in one tank, and within a week the cories had barbel stubs. I moved them to a tank with soft sand and in my case they recovered and the barbels regrew, fortunately because I caught it in time.

Cories also have a need inherent in their genetics to sift the substrate for food; they cannot do this with gravel.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

The problem with substrates is how coarse they are. With sand, food will pretty much sit at the surface of the substrate. Even with a fairly small sized smooth gravel this is also the case. But as the spaces between between the gravel starts to increase, food will silp deeper into it. The cory uses its barbels to find food which it then eats. When that food is deeper down because the substrate grain size is bigger, the cory scrapes its barbels on the gravel. It doesn't need to be sharp edged to cause harm. A somewhat rough surface can cause abrasions on the barbels.

This seemingly mild damage is enough to let infection have an opportunity to get a hold. The result can be the complete erosion of barbels. This is compounded by the fact that, when there are big enough spaces, the food can get into them where it become unreachable and then rots. This can become a hazard to barbels.

Here is a post on Planetcatfish.com by Ian Fuller from Oct. 2008 on this:

Suitable Cory substrate!

Over the years I have used many different substrates for Corys and by far the most suitable is fine smooth grained sand. Smooth grained, that is to say when viewed through a magnifying glass looks like tiny pebbles. This is what most Cory species are living over in their natural habitat and is perfect for their feeding habit, which in the main is that of a filter feeder. They actually take up mouth fulls of sand and filter out any food particles they find and eject the sand through the base of their gills. The food itself can be all manner of things from microscopic organisms, small crustaceans, worms, and insect larvae.

The problem we have in our aquariums when we use larger particle substrate is that food penetrates deep into the substrate and the Corys then have to actually move it around with their barbels, this is unnatural for them and can cause unnecessary ware and irritation to these delicate organs, which in turn can and does cause inflammation and then infection and we have all seen the resulting shortening and even total loss of barbels.

There is also secondary problems with using larger un-siftable substrate is that unreachable food will breakdown and rot causing pockets of anaerobic gasses to build up, which are highly poisonous to any fish that happens to ingest it. Many people will undoubtedly state that they have no problems using larger particle substrates for their Corys, which may very well be true and in the past I have done so myself, however it is not natural for them and it is easy to see what they prefer when you watch them sifting through fins sand.

Sctoll down here https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24266 Ian posts on PC as Coryman.

 

[Magnum Man]

Curious, as I was going to give them a break from the alkaline water, and was going to replace them in this tank, with…
Arius jordani… because they are supposed to be better in alkaline water… but they still have barbels would that be a problem???

 

[Magnum Man]

So my last water change on that tank, I paid particular attention to vacuuming the gravel... I also noticed that on that expanded aluminum Java moss mat, that someone had been pulling the moss off & putting it in a cave, I pulled out the expanded metal part ( not much moss left ) & a lot of sharp edges... I bought that on Amazon that way, I don't recommend that... so far the cory's are all doing well, though I noticed another without barbels as well... will see if they get any better... if I don't see a positive change, I'll move them and add a couple white / black tipped sharks, I listed above...