Pictus Lost Chin Whiskers

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Dark Jester

Dark Jester

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jun 17, 2010
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Hi All, got 3 pictis cats in with a few CA/SA Cichlids and some other smaller cats (Cory/Oto). Cichlids are all around 2", and the pictus are around 3" each.

Yesterday I noticed one of the pictus had it's chin whiskers removed. They are just 1/4" stubs at the moment, where they were around an inch long the day before. His 2 long top whiskers are totally intact, and the other 2 Pictus cats are totally fine. I've never seen any other fish get agressive toward the cats (mostly just ignore them), so I don't really think they were nipped off, and it looks like he just shaved. The bottom 4 short whiskers are all the same 1/4" length.

Anyway, was just curious if they shed their whiskers at all? He's not showing any signs of stress or anything, swimming with the other 2, active day and night, and still eating. It's possible the whiskers were nipped off, he is with cichlids after all, but it's odd that just the 4 short whiskers got trimmed and not the 2 extra long ones, and neither of the other cats have problems.

If anyone can offer some insight, I'd appreciate it. :)

Thanks,

-Chris
 
pictus will lose their whiskers if the water is slightly off. they are very suseptible to this when young(3 inches under) so maybe the ammonia or nitrates where off slightly.
 
Water quality should be good. I did just recently have my 3 year old dump a whole container of food into the tank last week, but we replaced all of the substrate and water. Ammonia and Nitrite are both zero. Don't have a nitrate test, but I do 10% water changes daily and the tank is planted so those should be under control. Forgot to mention it's a 55 gallon as well.

May be a side effect of the container of food being dumped in. I hadn't thought about that, but it might have caused a brief ammonia spike when it happened. He's active and seems to be happy though, so I guess I'll just wait for them to grow back. :)
 
yeah it probably happened from a short spike after the food got dumped in there, as long as everything is under control now then it shouldn't be an issue they should grow back just fine
 
Just wanted to confirm that his whiskers are growing back. They're about 1/2" long now. Thanks for the advice all. :)
 
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