forked barbel

[corywink]

just wanted to share a pic of one of my male panda corydoras with a very cool forked barbel. It would be even cooler if 4 of his long barbels were forked, would look like a bushynose cory

[bronzefry]

I've been told that it's the substrate and that makes complete sense. A smooth substrate such as fine sand can prevent this from happening. But, I've had fry born and raised in bare-bottom tanks have forked barbels every now and again. I've noticed it on Corydoras paleatus. Out of several hundreds of fry, I've had 2 with forked barbels. It may have been something else I did or didn't do. I kept them and they're doing fine.
Amanda

[corywink]

I'm pretty sure in this case, it's genetic. I've had him for several years and it was always like this. My substrate is fine, since all my corys have long barbels, as you can see from this cory's barbels.