Cories losing whiskers

[mozart]

My cories have lost their whiskers. All of them. Just when I thought cories were the most resilient of FWF, the past few months a few have died for no obvious reason. My hardy survivors have all lost their whiskers. One of my old guys (easily identified because of his very solid black eyes) was the first I noticed. His mouth is a permanent 'O' from some sort of mouth rot. The other cories seem OK just whisker free. They seem stable (2 months or so) otherwise. The other fish in the tank are fine so far. Water. seems stable. No gravel change. Vac with every water change. 80% q2weeks. Thoughts?

[fishorama]

Barbel loss is almost always a water quality issue...do you lift & vac under decor? 2 months is not a very long time...What is the size & sharpness of your gravel? I suspect bacterial problems...columnaris?

[mozart]

Yup. Move, lift, scrub. I overfeed for sure. so there may be some sort of bottom level high polluting going on between wc . It is only their mouths. No other skin lesions. Same average gravels for years. Some born and raised amongst it. Stable after barble loss at least 2 months. I expected Onyx to be dead 2 months ago. Not sure how much stress the yo-yo may be causing at night . I'd rather have cories than the yo-yo.
I wonder if the whiskers will grow back if I get to the source of the problem.

[BettaFishMommy]

with really clean water the barbels may have a chance of growing back. i recall reading of somebody's cory that this happened to (they grew back) but for the life of me i can't remember where i saw it, sorry.

the cories that passed away most likely did so because they were not able to find food as easily (their barbels help them out with finding food). there have been cases of cories with no barbels surviving and eating just fine but if yours have a number of other fish to compete with for food then they might just not be finding the food before the other fish do.

as mentioned, knowing what your substrate is would help us assist you. cories like to 'snuffle' around for food and gravel with sharp edges can cause the barbels to erode. your old "O" mouthed cory may have had a previous injury from the sharp gravel that caused scarring and now his mouth just won't close properly?

i would suggest switching your substrate over to sand (pool filter or play sand), in stages, so that the tank stays as stable as possible. we don't need anything else stressing your wigglebutt babies.

edit - yoyo loaches have been known to be rather 'snarky'. possibly your loach is nipping at the barbels?

[mozart]

Once again--ordinary average gravel that they have been living in for years before developing this problem.

[jetajockey]

I would step up on water changes and gravel vacs, its likely a bacteria issue as posted above. I can't advise on specific meds as I haven't had to do this with my cories as of yet.

[BettaFishMommy]

Once again--ordinary average gravel that they have been living in for years before developing this problem.

i did miss that part, apologies. i was posting right when you posted and i didn't catch that part in the middle, only the part at the end about the loach.

[Chrisk-K]

Barbel loss is almost always a water quality issue...do you lift & vac under decor?

+1

Dirty stuff can be easily trapped in the substrate. Because cories constantly dig up the (dirty) subtrate, their barbels can be contaminated by dirty substrate.

[pinkertd]

+1

Dirty stuff can be easily trapped in the substrate. Because cories constantly dig up the (dirty) subtrate, their barbels can be contaminated by dirty substrate.

+2, You are not keeping the substrate clean enough. Cut back on the food and step up the gravel vacs. Don't be afraid to shove that python all the way down into the gravel. Sometimes the barbels grow back and sometimes they don't. It's a slow process.