In my experience, if the barbels are completely gone they will not grow back.

Mark

Not in my limited experience.
I rescued some corys, (leucomelas)
and they had no barbels, and even some of their snout was missing as well.

I got them into my main tank after a 3 week QT,
and now 3 months later ...

After getting the same response from everyone,
I will just leave her be.
I won't euthanize though,
as she is still eating,
and was a rescue.
She's actually started eating a lot,
and is getting larger.

She and her friend were put into the main 29 gallon yesterday,
and they are having a great time ...

I just got a very close up view of the cory's mouth.

It does have a hole for it's mouth,
it's 1/8 the size of the other cory.

It's right in front of the cory,
as there are no barbels to
hide it.

I don't believe the mouth slit controls the opening and closing,as it's always open.
The jaw muscles ...

Hi PC,
I have a problem with one of my new corys.
I rescued them from someone on Craigslist.

So, I've been keeping them in QT
(5 gallon, 78 deg, ph 6.8,
100% water change every 5 days,
no substrate)

The guy brought them to me,
and they had no barbels. Great.....
They are now regrowing the barbels ...