my channelcats whickers

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bryan.olsen

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 31, 2007
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vancouver wa
hey i have a 19 or 20" channelcat that i caought when he was about 2"long at a pond in the columbia georg, recently he got spooked by the light and broke one of his whiskers, it dangled there for a bit an now its gone, i was curious if there was anything special i could do to help it grow back hes done it before but it diddnt come totally off, i know it uses these to hunt but i feed it earthworms and shrimp by hand so hunting isnt a big deal, but does it effect anything else?​

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They also use their whiskers to find their way in the dark and murky waters of the wild. They usually grow back fine, but I've seen Seachem's Stress Guard work wonders in the healing process.
 
He'll be ok, but if the tank is too small he'll rub it a lot and it wont grow.

The best thing you can do is keep the water pristine.
 
thanks guys i keep the water conditions just about perfect its in a 220G and i have the big renastar filter i forget what exactly what its called, a fluval 404 and a couple of small overhead filters that hang on the side. i do weekly 20-30% waterchanges and never leave uneaten food for more than an hour.my girlfriend hates it.lol
 
I have 2 albino channels that are about a foot long each, and they hate when the light comes on also. They never broke off a whisker or anything like that (yet). They do however smash the side of the tank sometimes. I've found that when I get home I turn on the ceiling light first and leave that on for a while then turn on the tank lights and they don't seem to be as skitish. I haven't done this personally but if you get a dimmer switch and plug that into your fish lights I bet that would help out significtly. Just slowly turn it up like two or three times till it's at full level. Other than that the better the water quality the faster the fish heels. Good luck!
 
Ditto, except if it is broken off to close to the maxillary portion of the "whisker" which is the bone contained at the base of the of the barbells. If too close to this it will not regenerate. It looks kinda close, and only time will tell. If it is going to grow back it will be kinda slow at first, and should take 2-4 weeks to notice any real length in the growth. Till it starts growing again it will look like a bulb at the end, and a tiny whisker will start to grow, from there it should match up when full length again, but may have a kink in it where it broke off.
 
Mine had one that snapped in half (before we moved him to an indoor pond). It grew back but a little one sprouted off too. It's a funny looking "fork" now.
 
a while ago when it just broke it was closer to the base and it grew back fine in about 3 weeks (like you said) so im confident that it'll be ok , but i think i wannt find him a new home the tank just isnt quite wide enough, well it might be now but i dont know about in month or two.so is anyone from the NW thats interested in a cat like this?
 
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