Blind powder blue..... Help

[viggen]

I had a fluke outbreak with some new fish I purchased and I did what people suggested, used prazipro for treatment. I followed directions and now my powder blue isn't doing to great. He's totally blind..... Running into walls, rocks, fish etc..... His fins are kinda chewed up but looks fine otherwise, I thought his chewed up fins were from my trigger, passer angel also has messed up fins.

I freshwater dipped him two days ink a row..... Any thoughts on what I can or should do?

 

[h2so4hurts]

Could just be stressed out from the treatments and all of your dipping. Why did you dip him? For flukes or because it was acting funny?

 

[cngreg]

I've binded marine angelfish before with overdosing praziquantel (a regal and a passer). They didn't resolve and eventually perished. I've seen a powder blue tang blinded before by treating formlain too soon after treating copper (reduces copper 2+ in the body to the much more toxic copper 1+). This fish was blind for 3 days but did regain sight.

 

[h2so4hurts]

I've binded marine angelfish before with overdosing praziquantel (a regal and a passer).

Really? I've never heard of that before. Is this well known? The only thing I could find was that there's a type of fluke that can burrow into a fish's eye and cause blindness after prazi treatment, but it's not the prazi treatment that blinds the fish directly. I'm interested if you can point me to more reading material

 

[cngreg]

Yea I've actually seen this twice. Seen a whole batch of freshwater angels also overdosed and blinded. Praziquantel overdosed can cause neurological issues (seizures, slowed heart rate) in dog/horse. I don't think it's been examined in fish. While in vetmed it has a super high LD50, neurological signs can happen early in sensitive individuals. Fish's mechanism of absorption is unknown though it's dose 2-4 mg/L but injected at 25 mg/kg, a way higher concentration than osmotic diffusion. I wouldn't put it past either them to concentrate it from the environment or there to be a strange drug/water chemistry interaction. I thought I read a post somewhere on here regarding interactions with chloroquin.

 

[h2so4hurts]

Yeah, the chloroquin interaction is in the Noga Fish disease book. Thanks for the info, Charlie. I always learn a lot from your posts.

 

[viggen]

He was dipped due to being blind, not knowing if he was infected with something else or at was going on...... Today I setup a second qt 75g tank, the pb is in there by himself, hopefully this new clean water will save him.

Thanks for the input....

 

[Spar]

curious how this turned out? i have a blind trigger and wondering if he can be helped. what eventually worked best if so?

 

[tonypittman]

These are confounding cases.

Can a fish experiencing blindness come to see again?

I have a beautiful Powder Blue in my QT that was doing GREAT!
The QT was not being treated with anything.

Then, I decided to completely eliminate ich from my DT, and I pulled several other fish into the QT and treated the tank with CopperSafe (recommended dosage). Overnight, it appears that bacteria attacked the PBT. The other fish were just fine...but the PBT completely slimed-over, and its eyes became cloudy.

I immediately treated with Maracyn and Maracyn-Two.

Within 24 hours, the PBT was again completely clean. No ich, no slime, eyes clear.

But, it appears to be without sight. It occasionally bumps into things, and I can put my hand in the tank and pretty much pet the fish (kinda cool, but sad!)

Well, I did a ~50% water change and added carbon to the filter...looking to remove the copper.

The PBT has started eating again, but is only eating nori that I roll up and stand in the middle of the tank. He ends up running into it, and then seems to enjoy eating it. He sometimes encounters floating pieces of dislodged nori in the tank, and will eat these too.

Question: is this the way it will remain with this PBT, or is it possible for them to regain full sight and function? Anyone else experience this?