Blind fish - purple tilefish

[BraenDead]

I picked up a beautiful purple tilefish recently from my LFS and have discovered that it is fully blind. It was acting a bit weird at the LFS, but I watched it eating while at the LFS and figured it was just a bit spooked from the recent shipping stress and being in a new environment. After bringing it home and acclimating it, I'm quite certain that this fish is blind. I can reach in and touch him - he doesn't see my hand coming at all. He moves a little when I do this but not much - he is the calmest tilefish I've ever seen (granted, I've never seen a blind tilefish).

I currently have the fish in my refugium (which is currently empty - I move the rock to the sump). He moves along fairly slowly and bumps into things, typically moving along the bottom of the tank with his pelvic fins feeling the bottom. When I feed the tank, he starts cruising around and sniffing out food and eating it off the bottom.

When I look at him, he doesn't appear to have any cloudiness in his eyes or other signs of typical blindness, nor any other signs of illness. As mentioned, he's eating well (albeit slowly), so I think I may keep him separated so that he doesn't have to compete for food when I feed the system.

I'm hopeful that if I keep feeding him that its possibly something that will get better. But, I wanted to see if anyone here has any suggestions or if there is anything I should try to help him? Otherwise, I may just be keeping a blind fish separate from my main tank. It's a beautiful fish and I would feel bad taking him back, as I'm not sure many people would want to deal with feeding a blind fish and making sure that he's able to get plenty to eat.

Thanks for any help or suggestions that are offered.

Bob

 

[Fitz19d]

Following. Received a free zebra lined goby that is blind. Sits still most of time till he smells food. Seems full grown, no obvious malady though seems to mostly only use gills on one side mostly. In an acclimation box now and he bumbles around into the mysis and eats them. I got him shiny and send to be adding some weight already.

 

[CoralNerd]

What food did you and the store feed it? There's a food out there that has alcohol in it.

 

[BraenDead]

PE Mysis - I would highly suspect it was related to that, since all of my fish eat this and it's the main food the fish store feeds. (Also, I should note that I always rinse the mysis, though the LFS does not)

Bob

 

[CoralNerd]

PE Mysis - I would highly suspect it was related to that, since all of my fish eat this and it's the main food the fish store feeds. (Also, I should note that I always rinse the mysis, though the LFS does not)

Bob

Yeah PE mysis is fine. I wonder if it's related to how the fish was captured

 

[BraenDead]

(I meant to say I would highly doubt)

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[BraenDead]

Bump for end of weekend - any thoughts on how to best care (maybe help cure?) a blind fish?

Bob

 

[juniorrocketdad]

In my experience, the only time I have encountered a blind fish is after they bump into something and their eye puffs up, after this the eye usually puffs down but the fish will be blind in the eye, imo if you want to keep this fish he needs to be basically alone and in an area where he can't bump into anything sharp

 

[Rakie]

Ah poor guy!

I've got a firefish my gf picked out as our first fish. She picked out a Dottyback next and I greatly underestimated how much of an ******* the Dottyback could be in a Nano to such a passive peaceful fish.. After getting beat up for only a day, the Dottyback went to the LFS. A day later the Firefish's eye became cloudy -- it subsided by the next day, but ever since she seems to move a little differently, and seems to miss food when i feed her that she wouldn't have missed before.. So I'm thinking she may have damage to one of her eyes.

I agree with Juniorrocketdad -- Let him live in the fuge which is basically just Macro and substrate. If you can, get some smooth rocks like what you might see near freshwater ponds and give him a little cave of his own, this will reduce scrapes, cuts, and more possible damage to his eyes. So long as you don't move things around he'll adjust just fine. It's a shame, but personally, you know very few people would give this little guy half a chance. He'd likely just end up dead in someones DT -- Whatever made him blind, he probably wasn't like that before he was collected. So if you can spare the extra few minutes attention per day I'd say it's worth it.

I'm a big softy for fish lol

 

[BraenDead]

Thanks for the feedback. It wasn't what I was looking for in a fish - but it's a beautiful fish and as always in life, you don't always get what you expect.

I've got him in my fuge and he seems happy - eating each day and it's actually quite fun watching him swim around searching for food. It's pretty cool to watch him swimming in what is almost like patterns across the bottom and grabbing the food. Also, there is the plus that I don't think he will be a jump-risk (unlike almost every other tilefish). He just doesn't swim fast ever - likely to avoid hitting things. I can reach my hand in the tank and pet him softly and he just sits there - so in someways it is a very unusual fish.

I've got some rocks in the fuge but that is it right now. When he's not out and about he has a spot under one of the rocks he returns to. He's already figured out how to get back to it pretty well - he bumps around a bit but makes it to the same spot consistenly. I'll have to come up with a new name for this since it's no longer going to be a fuge - I'll keep the stuff that was going to be in here in my sump.

Thanks!

Bob

 

[Rakie]

Something I forgot to mention! Don't toss crabs in there with him, any opportunistic creature will probably take a swing at him. I'm sure you already considered this though.

And yeah, you're right, sometimes things just work out in different ways. It's actually really interesting you see him swimming in patterns, it definitely shows he's a thinking, and problem solving creature.

I don't think he would mind a bunch of cheato in there. Worst case scenario you could build a false top 3-4" from the top with Eggcrate & Jump screen, and keep the cheato up there like a tree canopy. Another really cool tank I saw was a "Display Fuge", basically a fuge that had a bunch of different and cool looking Macro algae, and was lightly stocked -- It was basically a way to work a second tank into his system that was also functional.

The only other thing I can think of is supplementing some food with vitamins. He may not be blind, or at least not completely blind -- might be damaged, or have some type of parasite/infection. Either way, it's very cool you're keeping him and giving him the environment he needs. Those are definitely beautiful little fish. Plus, if you ever have a lady over and point out the poor blind fish you take care of you'll melt her heart, LOL

 

[BraenDead]

Great suggestion on the vitamins - I'll give that a go for a while. Also on having some macro in there - he likely wouldn't even notice it too much. I just wouldn't want it taking up too much space.

I'm happily married, but my wife seems to like the idea of keeping the guy and helping him out

Bob

 

[Rakie]

Nothing wrong with melting the wifes heart either haha. Good point about the space, it is a fuge. But very cool, blind or not, a bit of Selcon couldn't hurt. Sounds like he'll have a pretty happy life hanging out with the Pods'!

 

[chewdoggie]

I have kept a skunk tilefish for about 8 years. Recently he began to hide and seemed to be feeling under the weather. My black ice clown died about 3 weeks ago...that was sudden and without any symptoms. Tank parameters are spot on and the tank is stable.

I took the tank apart because after 2 days missing I figured he was dead somewhere in the back. He was found alive but obviously not himself. Did not struggle to get away from the net and looking back on it now probably couldn't see it. Although both him and my purple tilefish could be hand fed, swimming into my palm at times.

I did a freshwater dip thinking that perhaps it was flukes since these fish are prone to it. Nothing. After three days of medicating with Fishkeeper he is now swimming and appears interested in eating again, BUT he also appears to be blind.

I don't know of any disease that causes blindness. Nutritionally, he has always been well fed with a wide variety of foods. It is super rare (knock on wood) for me to lose a fish. Most of these guys in my tank are over 7 years to 15 years old. Any ideas?

1.024
0 on ammonia and nitrite
NO3 @ 10ppm
PO4 @ 0
CA/Alk/Mag 440/8dkh/1300
currently in a 300 gallon system that is water changed weekly