# HELP something is eating my loaches and corys faces :(



## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

so ive had a few of my clown loaches and corys die it appears at thought something is biting their whiskers/mouth parts off. I notice a few still living guys have unusually short whiskers, the loaches are a new addition and the corys came from my shrimp tank. I didnt have an issue before i introduced the extra bottom feeders, i also added yoyo loaches at the same time but they seem fine.
I have some semi aggressive fish which could be to blame chinese algae eater, tiger, green tiger, panda, odessa, and gold barbs last but not least the Tilapia mariae. I had noticed the Tilapia strike 1 of the pandas and im pretty sure it killed one of my tiger barbs. Any idea or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, im losing about a fish a day. Oh i should also mention the Tilapia was killing the rosy red minnow feeders that were too big for him to eat.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

test the water

whats the substrate you use in that tank.

It could be caused by an aggressive fish, but more likely is bad water conditions, fungal/bacterial (forgot which one) infection, and sometimes, simply having rough substrate.

I am afraid in the cases for corys, if their barbels are too damaged, they usually dont make it.


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## TLe041 (Feb 9, 2010)

The Chinese algae eater and tilapia sounds like a ticking time bomb (especially when you saw it attack a fish already). For your peace of mind, why not just get rid of them now?


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## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

the talapia im in the process of trying to give him away, the algae eater i havent seen attack anyone just heard they can become aggressive. i only have 2 or 3 of the eaters but they have been peacefully sharing the tank(55g) with seven 2+" garas with out incident. I took another good look at my corys and i noticed one of them is miss missing the lower half of its tail fin to the base. I'm really leaning toward the talapia, im pretty close to taking a hammer to this guy 

i just did my routine maintenance filter change sunday and water change today, their isnt any sign of rotting or cotton mouth the best way to describe it is as though it was bitten or cut off. 

My substrate is a mixture of the larger and smaller sized flourite red, the corys were in my shrimp tank which i im using flourite black small grain.


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## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

Oh i forgot to mention i also have ghost and amano shrimps in the tank it could be a case of the corys/clowns wearing the barbels down and the shrimps eating the soft parts after they die.


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## PanzerFodder (Oct 15, 2010)

I read on another forum (planet catfish) that flourite is not good for corys, as it has sharp edges that wears their barbels away.

I can't find the post now, but the guy was having the same problems as you.

Good Luck...PanzerFodder...


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

mrobson said:


> My substrate is a mixture of the larger and smaller sized flourite red, the corys were in my shrimp tank which i im using flourite black small grain.


This is likely your culprit, as your Cory's continually dig and sift through the substrate looking for tasty morsels. Sharp, jagged edged substrates will wear down and damage their barbels. This eventually leads to their demise.

Ideally you can use sand with Cory's, but at the very least something smaller, round and smooth.


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## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

ive looked through a few sites and got mixed results, im wondering how prone corys and clown loaches are to stress as i have been hand feeding the talapia. Could this cause enough stress to kill them, i usually do it every other day by holding a chunk of frozen blood worms in my hand half way in the tank. Also i forgot my baby whale fish is mildly electric not sure if he has anything to do with it.


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## Y2KGT (Jul 20, 2009)

Chris S said:


> This is likely your culprit, as your Cory's continually dig and sift through the substrate looking for tasty morsels. Sharp, jagged edged substrates will wear down and damage their barbels. This eventually leads to their demise.
> 
> Ideally you can use sand with Cory's, but at the very least something smaller, round and smooth.


I agree 100% however you also have a terrible mixture of non community agressive fish with your cories and loaches. This is what would stress your non agressive fish.

You should take the agressive fish back to your LFS or Big Als' for credit ASAP.


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## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

i only have the 1 talapia and hes in the process of leaving as for my other fish i already had some gara, peppered corys and small albino aeneus corys, i with the barbs and algea eater with out inccident. It seems to be only effecting my skunk corys and my clown loachs, everything seem to happen right around the time i added the extra bottom feeders and the talapias growth explosion. I added yoyo loaches just after the clowns and they are thriving as are peppered and aeneus. The skunks came out of my shrimp tank and had no prior issues. The loaches from my LFS i had gotten some in the past with only 1 surviving i was thinking maybe the tiger barbs are nipping them thinking they are other tigers b/c similar color patterns. My fish arent super aggressive other than the talapia i have a bumblebee goby that lives with them as is very happy he eats everything from flake to blood worms.


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## Jung (Mar 17, 2009)

corys are not doomed if they loose their barbels, but you have to move them to a healthy tank with rounded substrate. It will take them years to regrow their barbels.


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## qwerty (Dec 15, 2009)

FWIW I regularly speak to one fish keeper who has been keeping for many years, and who has kept cories on plain flourite without any problems. 

His opinion is that the substrate thing is a bit of a myth and that blaming the substrate is just a way of avoiding the fact that you aren't maintaining high water quality and low nitrates.

I do not necessarily agree with him 100%, and I would move them to a rounder/softer substrate, though I state this simply so you wont just figure "oh well, I guess it was my substrate" and neglect to investigate a possible underlying water quality issue.

Also do remember that liquid test kits can lose accuracy over time. Ensuring accuracy with a known PPM solution may not be a bad idea.


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