Still another case of barbel erosion. :(

[WhistlingBadger]

My little adolph's cories have lost their barbels, and several of them have disappeared. Water is extremely clean chemically speaking: No detectable nitrates, nitrites, or ammonia. Bottom is soil under play sand. I've been doing weekly 30-50% water changes weekly since I set up the tank almost a year ago. There is a weird amount of mulm on the bottom. Vacuuming is problematic since it's a densely planted tank with lots of woodwork, but I've been trying.

Poor little guys. Hate to see them suffering. I don't know what changes I can make without messing up all the other fish (by the way, most of the other fish look great). Any ideas?

 

[Colin_T]

pictures?

 

[Sgooosh]

how old is the tank? i had this problem of irritation when my tank was new

 

[WhistlingBadger]

No pics, sorry Colin. Just imagine a normal adolfo, but with no barbels. Coloring is good, no sign of infection.

Tank has been set up for around 10 months.

 

[Sgooosh]

No pics, sorry Colin. Just imagine a normal adolfo, but with no barbels. Coloring is good, no sign of infection.

Tank has been set up for around 10 months.

hmm
what specific brand of sand?
is there a photo of the whole tank? maybe some rocks or wood or stuff is sharp

 

[itiwhetu]

What is the pH of this tank, please?

 

[Lynnzer]

A forensic problem solving matter here.
Loss of barbels can really only be due to very few things.
It's either sharp substrate that wears them down but if that was the case you would have seen a gradual loss rather than a sudden disappearance. If the play sand is smooth rather than builders sand which is sharp edged it's unlikely to the cause.
The other cause would be the water being "wrong" somehow. However poor water parameters is easily detected by daily testing and in any case would have effects on the health of other fish such as fin rot if it was severe enough to cause barbel loss.
The mulm in itself isn't such a bad thing in a heavily planted tank as it's the natural fertiliser your plants thrive on. However too much of it could become a problem that needs to addressed. That said, mulm would cause water issues and not have any direct effect on barbel wear and tear. It isn't likely to the cause of the problem.
I have a couple of heavily planted tanks with mini hairgrass covering the bottom and the loaches spend a great deal of time shuffling around in the grass looking for snacks. It just occured to me that some plants may have rough edges to the leaves that abrades the barbels. I know I've cut my finger on grass myself when I was a kid playing in the fields. Constant back and forth in rough edged grass or plants of any sort will have some effect on those parts of the body constantly rubbing against it.
Apart from this possibility there really seems to be no other explanation as far as I'm concerned.

 

[GaryE]

A couple of years ago, I picked up two Scleromystax barbatus, since there were only two in the tank. Recently, I found three more. One died after arrival, but the other 2 are active and in good colour, with mildly eroded barbels. I had never considered stress as a possible contributor, but the older barbatus have superb whiskers, in the same tank. The new ones have been in 3 months now.

I just moved them to a larger tank, and we'll see if that helps.

I suspect ammonia, with a dirted tank and mulm. If you watch an Apistogramma dwarf cichlid Mom leading her brood around, she is known to detect and avoid areas of lower oxygen or decomposition, and keep the fry away from them. There are such spots in a lot of tanks. Maybe the Corys are wandering into them too often?