We recently added a young shovelnose cat to our aquarium with our oscar and striped raphael catfish. He was doing great and very lively and active. The oscar leaves him alone and everyone gets along great. over the past week I noticed his barbels have gone from long and flowing to being tucked to his sides all day and they seem to be as I can only describe "rotting" They have a film peeling off of them and one of them has become shorter than the other. I've never seen the oscar nip at them but I guess thats a possibility. Does anyone have any insight into this? Other than the barbel issue he seems to be dong fine still.

What size of tank and what kind of substrate are you using. You do realize that a shovelnose is a tank buster and will get large enough to eat your oscar.

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Oh, You're thinking of the Tiger Shovelnose which indeed when fully grow is capable of eating a Oscar. Mine is a smaller species(Sorubim Lima) which averages around 18" when mature. As far as tank we have a 125 gallon with a small size gravel for substrate.

Its still a tank buster and you would be surprised at what they try to eat. Even to the point that both fish die.

I've seen pics of an oscar tried to eat a 8 inch pleco. Both fish died as it was unable to remove the pleco from its mouth.

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SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
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Well why don't you just come out and say you don't think I know what I'm doing. You really know how to make a new member feel welcome.

I'm not saying that you don't know what your doing, I'm just saying what I have experienced. Shovelnoses even the smaller ones have very large mouths. I had one that was 7 inches and tried to eat fish that were 5 inches. So an 18 inch one will try to eat anything that is smaller than it is. Even a 12 inch oscar.

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SUCCESS IS MEASURED BY YEARS, NOT MONTHS!!!
220 Tank build
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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.