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A few months ago I posted about a little rescue convict I had who had vision problems (among many others). He is now a super healthy, thriving fish but still has failed to regain his sight. His pupils are perfectly white, otherwise his eyes look normal.

Since he's been in my care he has been treated with: Melafix, Jungle Parasite, Furan Light, and Furan 2. He looks and acts remarkably better than be did starting out but has had no improvement in vision.

I'm afraid his sight is gone for good but I thought I'd try a last post to see if there is anything else to try. I'd hate to doom him to existence in my 10 gal Hospital (though it has been considerably upgraded to suit his long term stay) when I have a perfectly nice, empty 55 waiting for him. If he can't see then I doubt he'd survive in my planned cichlid tank but are there any other tank mates to consider? He may be the world's easiest fish to net but he will still violently attack anything unexpected that touches him so he'd have to be partnered with sturdy, unaggressive companions.

I wouldn't put it past a fish to survive even without vision. It's amazing how much they can perceive through other senses, such as through the lateral line. The only problem I could thing of to put him in with other cichlids would be that he wouldn't be able to communicate with the other fish (posture, etc - most cichlids communicate visually to establish social structure). Obviously he has no trouble defending himself. If he's the first resident in there, you might be lucky with other cichlids.

Otherwise, perhaps tiger barbs, buenos aires tetras, many different catfish could make good tankmates for a blind convict.

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How about doing a blind fish tank, and using him and some blind cave fish?

mts.gif" border="0"> I vote do you?
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You should get him a "seeing eye" dogfish, LOL.
Bad joke.
I think that "FishKeeperJim" idea of the blind cave fish is a good theme. However blind cave fish are a little small when you get them and the convict MAY surprise you and eat the blind cave fish, if the convict is big enough and the blind cave is small enough. Besides that I would say go for it.

You could always put the cave fish in and let them grow a little while before you introduce the convict. I assume at this point he is small enough to handle the 10 gallon for at least a few more months?
You could also have some cories or other bottom dweller types that wouldn't normally be in his way...

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"When push comes to shove, you gotta do what you love, even if it's not a good idea"

Maybe go for a doradid?

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/344.htm

Tough, well armoured, they barely move, and will vibrate like hell if he takes a shot at them , and should make him retreat. Be very handy for clearing up food he misses too, they eat practically anything. Have some cave or bogwood down so they can get under it if he gets stroppy with them, a blind convict will never figure it out.

I think a blind cave fish would get picked to pieces, theyre really active and would probably set the convict off, plus they are really good at feeding, for them the blindness is no handicap, the convict might never get to the food. A doradid would probably wait till lights out. If you pick a cagemate , make it a nocturnal one so the convict gets a chance to feed during the day, and the cleanup crew work the nightshift.

Howdy lioness!

How is the Asian themed tank coming along? A convict does not exactly the geographic location but a charming fish.

More serious now, are you suggesting to move the blind convict to the 55G with tank mates so he can enjoy his existence more than in 10G all by himself?
The questions that came to my mind were a) what are the normal living quarters of a convict, b) which fishes does he interact with that are not considered prey, c) are we interppreting our own expectations/views into this fish social animals that we humans are?

To my knowledge and not being a convict expert, the question to a) is gravel bottom tanks with caves and hiding places like pots, the fish eats and destroy plants. b) not a gregarious outgoing species aside from finding a partner to reproduce, rather irritated by other species and intolerant and territorial towares others.

From a biological point of view, your convict will do rather well without vision as it has other means to orient itself and excellent scent. BTW, cave fish are active swimmers that do not 'bump' into objects, so it is up to an experiment how they will get along with the littel patient. The real question is how much a territorial and rather intolerant fish like a convict will 'enjoy' company aside from a mate! Of course, you could always go with species that inhabit different regions of water (the surface and the region close to it come to mind) to minimize possible encounters, but then again - how enjoyable/entertaining will this be to the convict?

Any fish that will quickly learn to get out of the convicts way realizing its limitations should be fine, even bottom dwellers. I had once a one-eyed dwarf cichlid that was surprisingly agggressive and it was rather comical to watch how other fishes (except tetras) within very short time learned to drive the poor guy nuts by swimming into its 'blind spot' to avoid further harrassment.

Sorry for this rather long post, in conclusion I would like to suggest that you consider the possibility that your little striped guy is pefectly fine in 10G by himself, a slightly larger tank with some 'smart' species to interact/avoid after encounter might provide a more interesting way of life but that might be already too much of interpretation and a 55G might be fine for him as long as the company is restricted in number, not alarming to him because of constant fast swimming or a curious nature (nippers that realize the convict's shortcoming like tiger barbs).

Thanks for the replies guys!

catdancer- You have some very good points to work through.

My original thought was a breeding pair of convicts in the 55 along with some feeder guppy whatnot for dithers and food. Kinda going for the natural river/stream setup with rocks for hiding spots, open swimming space and tough grass like plants.

We can now safely scratch that since his condition is permanent. My dilemma is that I don't feel good about leaving him in a 10 his whole life because of potential size/wastes etc.. so I'd prefer to see him in the 55.

However, just one fish is a bit 'boring', that is my only good reason for tank mates! He's probably fine but I want it to be more interesting for me, so long as he doesn't have to suffer for it. I can't have anything that would out compete him for food though. That is the challenge. I have him trained now to come to one corner of the tank and wait on the bottom for food, in a bigger tank that might be harder to achieve. Maybe I should invest in those giant tweezers and hand feed him!

I'm really not a tiger barb/tetra/danio type person so we don't have to worry about those pestering him. I've entertained the notion of mixing him with my bottom dweller crew from the old 55 (the planted tank that was going 'asian' but then had to be torn down when I moved and is now sitting in the garage all lonely...). I have pepper cories and ottos. Cories are maybe too playful and oblivious but the ottos mind their own business. Maybe with enough plants(this particular convict has not rearranged any...yet).

I really like the idea of the doradid. I'll do some more research into that.

It's strange, but I've grown tired of the common tropical fish. I can't stand the mindless little faces (WAY too much time staring into the eyes of the platies lately). Cichlids are much more interesting creatures, even blind ones.

Enough disorganized rambling for now...