C. Habrosus Short Barbels

[karawr]

Hi all,

Lately I've noticed the barbels on my c. habrosus have been very very short.

Did water testing for a week straight and ammonia and nitrite showed up as 0ppm.

No deaths at all so far, despite this going on for a month or so. Only one random death yesterday (honey gourami). I'm now doing a very large w/c.

When I vac the substrate (sand)there is hardly any debris coming up so I can't imagine my sand is all that dirty...

29g long (36")
x20 or so c. habrosus
x8 black phantom tetra
x15 glowlight tetra
x1 honey gourami

Any ideas?

 

[chokko]

nitrate reading?

people talk about not getting 'sharp' sand.
maybe take a close up pic, then blow it up on the computer to see if the individual pieces look smooth?

i think mine would be classified as smooth, but happy for others to comment:

panda fry thread

and how long have you had the Hasbrosus?

 

[karawr]

I have had them for almost a year. They have spawned for me and otherwise been healthy, up until a month ago. I wonder if it's some sort of infection or bacteria? I really don't know anything at all about fish illnesses. But I don't think it's a fungus because there are no white/fuzzy spots.

I doubt it is my sand. I use play sand and it's in all of my tanks but everyone's barbels is fine except in this one. I will do a nitrate reading when I get home (currently at school).

I have habrosus in another tank, with the same sand, and they have healthy long barbels. I also have trili in yet another that have wonderfully long barbels.

 

[karawr]

Nitrate is like... 5ppm. Hard to distinguish the colours from one another on the API test kit, but nowhere over 20ppm for sure.

I don't believe this is of concern at all, but I could be wrong.

Any thoughts. Worried for these little guys.

 

[karawr]

bump, they still have short barbels.

 

[snazy]

What are you feeding them?
Also, that "random death" seems suspicious. Any other signs besides the short barbel? Are the corys still active?
Have you changed any chemicals used like dechlorinator? Are they losing any colour? Have they spawned recently and do they normally spawn in that tank?

I can go on....

 

[karawr]

haha... they aren't really active, no, but then again I never really remember them being all that active.

And they haven't spawned in awhile, but last they spawned was in a different tank. I've since moved them to a bigger tank.

I feed them new life spectrum sinking pellets and occasionally blood worms. I've tried hikari wafers but they never seem to eat them..

I always and continue to use Prime. The only change has been I've stopped using flourish and flourish excel.

Haven't noticed a change in colour.

Still no deaths despite posting this nearly a month ago.

 

[snazy]

Glad no one has died.
What is the temperature in the new tank?
Was it the same as before?
Maybe you don't have enough water flow at the bottom?

There is something bothering them if they are not too active and haven't spawned too. It's hard to tell.
Have you tried feeding them hikari "micro" wafers. They are super small and maybe better for tiny corys like these. At least they won't use the barbels on them.