Barbel growth thread

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cool! do all catfish whiskers grow back?
 
cool! do all catfish whiskers grow back?

It depends on how far back it is cut. The barbel that is growing back here if it is cut down even with the nose of the catfish it will not grow back as it has bone at the base for muscle attachments. These are the maxillary barbels. :)
 
It depends on how far back it is cut. The barbel that is growing back here if it is cut down even with the nose of the catfish it will not grow back as it has bone at the base for muscle attachments. These are the maxillary barbels. :)

Thanks. Real bone or cartilage? I cannot say I noticed such bones on your skeleton works of science/art.
 
Thanks. Real bone or cartilage? I cannot say I noticed such bones on your skeleton works of science/art.

Yes it is actually bone. The name for this bone is is the maxilla(mx) in catfish, the tooth patches on the upper jaw are actually the premaxilla(pmx) I will be doing up a catfish anatomy thread sometime where I will show exactly what each bone is and what it connects to, as well as sexual differences in male and female catfish under dissection.
 
This is much faster growth than I have expirienced going back through some of my old threads. I can imagine that this species must have a higher regrowth rate for the barbels. Hmmmm.......very interesting. I never took the pics but the mental barbels on mine are completely grown back at this point as well.
 
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