yea, its true, i have a 6 inch or so shovel nose and he will put down 4 or 5 good size goldfish in a 5 minute sitting till he's buldging in the stomach and doing some heavy breathing at the bottom.

as for the rotting whiskers, I would try some melafix. its good to help heal open wounds, good for fin rot. I would assume it will work fine on the bels too.