Will Cory Catfish Barbels grow Back?

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Evanleigh

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Mar 9, 2014
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If I were to move my cories from my gravel substrate tank into a sand substrate tank, will their barbels eventually grow back? :(
 

Evanleigh

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Yay! That is good news. Will it take a while?
 

FreshyFresh

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Jan 11, 2013
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I've wondered about that as well. I've kept corys in with pea gravel and finer natural gravel and never noticed barbel erosion, but I always kept nitrates very low (~10ppm or less) with 50% wc's at a minimum.
 

Evanleigh

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Thank you Fishorama, that was a great article.

My nitrates are always low at about .5 with occasional .10. I think the problem is that I used that black eco-gravel as the base level of my substrate then put smoothed river gravel over that, but during gravel vacuuming it has brought up the rougher eco-substrate to mix in with the regular gravel. I think that's what is doing the barbel damage. Two of my corries have no barbels at all now. I'm setting up a 10 gallon with sand substrate and want to transfer those 2 corries to see if they can recover, but then I worry about the other 3. If I transfer all five into the sand substrate tank, what can I get for my 29 gallon? Will Kuli loaches do the bottom feeding like the corries?
 

fishorama

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I've used Eco for a number of years (8?) with "whiskered", digging bottom feeders, I really don't think that's the problem if you vac regularly.
 
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