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Hello

I'm new here but what an excellent site!

I haven't had time to get readings from my tank as my eyes are hanging out of my head from being up since 4.00 a.m. for work :{

Any chance that anyone can assist me anyway with a question as to why my poor Pepper Catfish has lost both his eyes?

He lost the first one almost as soon as we brought him home about 2 years ago. Last night when I did my daily fish check I noticed the other one was missing too. Admittedly it could have been gone for up to about a week as I haven't seen that side of his face for a while.

Without all the info about the tank, can anyone answer why this has happened? Is it common?

He appears quite happy and is eating well.

With many thanks in advance,
Toni

HI and welcome to Fishprofiles.com

Fish can lose their eyes from mechanical injury, or from infection. It will be much easier for your cory to adjust without eyesite as he can easily use his barbels and snout to find food. Their sense of scent is good and takes them in the general direction of food.

Obviously nothing can be done to replace the eyesight. From here, its a matter of observing him actually find food and making sure he does not slowly starve to death from an inability to do so. If you know that is happening, we can suggest several methods for humanely euthanizing him.

The first sign of anything being wrong - physically or behaviorally, we should analyze the environment.

Can you tell us what size tank this is and give us general info like stock list, filtration, and parameters:

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Temp:

If you don't have one or more of these, simply take a bag of water to the fish store and request they check it. Do right the numbers down and bring them back. Hopefully, they don't use some type of range indicator as those don't help us much. What is "ok" for one fish may not be for another.

How about water changes and gravel vacs? How often and how much? Do you ever move stuff around to get in good under decco and that? It's amazing what can accumulate under there, sometimes leading to a buildup of anaerobic bacteria (deadly bacteria that thrives in low or zero oxygen). YOu an also find pockets of hydrogen sulfide if the gravel has compacted in a spot and this can work its way into the water column much like oxygen, making them sick. Bubbles coming up through a gravel tube and a rotten egg smell is a good indication.

Have you lost power within the last month or so or was power cut to the filter? If so, how long was it out? Anything over 1 hour matters for most filters and for UGF's even less.

Thanks for that Cory_Di. I knew I'd have to get those figures which I will do after I finish this work cycle. I won't be able to get them until Saturday. When I just thought he was missing the one eye I made sure food dropped right in front of him which he would find and munch happily on. Obviously now I'll make doubly sure. Thanks again and I'll be back!

I also have a fish who has lost an eye, its a lake minnow who lost it swimming to fast. He now does very well I always check on him just to make sure, it took about a week for him to get used to it.

He is now fine and I have had him for almost three years, plus I recived him from someone else.




Good Luck
Angel Eel