barbells on Albinos

[cheekimeeki]

I currently have 3 Albinos living in a community tank with 3 spootted cats. The "problem" is that 2 of my Albinos have never had much barbell. I have had all of these guys for about 6 months...not orignally living together. Albinos were in a 10g with a betta for about 2 months and the spotted guys have always been in a 29g.

2 of the Albinos with barely barbells are the smaller of the cats, but they seem to fare well otherwise. Only 1 of the Albinos has showed any sign of being unhealthy. A few weeks ago a fuzz appeared on his "snoot", with treatment of a few days, the fungus dissappeared and he seems to be just fine.

The Albinos eat ok and that's what worries me most about the lack of barbells. I keep an eye on them closest, so any changes are seen in the early stages of whatever is going on.

This issue "seems" to be a non-issue, but since this is a Corydora forum and I am fairly newbie at this type of fish, any advice is truly appreciated!

J
~~~fish on

 

[cloud]

Corys can loose their barbels from sharp gravel waring away at them, but the most common cause is poor water quality. Have you tested the water lately?
They can live ok without them but it's a sign that they're not in the best of health. And they need good sized barbels to breed also.

 

[cheekimeeki]

hmmmm <sigh>

Yeah I test ammonia and pH on a somewhat regular basis. Ammonia virtually nil and pH stays near 6.5 most of the time. I'm novice at corys but aware of water quality issues. This just has me way baffled.

I'm not near giving up on these guys. As long as I see them eating and no 'other' visible signs of illness, they get to stay

thanks for the response!

 

[SnakeIce]

sharp gravel is a non issue with corries and thier barbels.

water quality, water quality, water quality, and nutrition.

they are more sensitive to poor water quality if they aren't getting a good variety of quality food. ie eating what other fish reject probably won't cut it for them.

the only way something sharp would affect them is if something else pushed a barbel across the sharp edge harder than the corry would itself. if that is the case I would expect to see alot more stress and possible deaths than if it was just self directed contact with rough edges.

but being that they are albino they could have deformities that would result in incomplete or not full length barbels because of the albino being recessive and more prone to being inbred to maintain the trait