I have a pair of crosshatch triggers. The male is huge ~ 11", the female less huge ~ 7-8".
Both were typical pigs eating everything they could, but a few weeks ago the female seems to have developed a visual problem. She is not 'blind' but cannot see food right in front of her face; she sees and tries to eat larger pieces that float by but rarely gets them. The first few days of this she was hiding, but since then has been out swimming like normal, and seems to recognize me and other fish as well as the rockwork.
Her appetite is good. I've been feeding her pieces of squid, octopus, krill, shrimp, and mussel twice a day with a stick. It's difficult to do because it takes her a while to find the food and eat it, meanwhile I have to fend off the male trigger and tangs as well as a zebra eel (who is basically blind but has an incredible sense of smell). I have to watch the eel very closely as he has on numerous occasions bitten the triggerfish when they were eating... he's also bitten me one, and even though he doesn't really have teeth, it hurt! - jaws were crazy strong !!
There are no external signs of disease and her eyes are not cloudy. I did treat the tank with Prazipro to make sure there were no flukes and it had no effect.
Before some asks about my parameters, they aren't great. I had a pump failure while on vacation before this happened with somewhat greater than usual swings in temperature, pH, and conductivity/salinity. However, they were still fairly small as reef tanks go. My nutrients run higher than they should because of non-photosynthetic soft corals and gorgonians not to mention some big eaters including the zebra eel, a 10" sohal tang, and the triggers. But none of the other fish seem have any issues with the conditions including some very delicate species i.e. copperband butterfly and african cleaner wrasse. The triggers do come from deep water and I keep the tank temperature fairly low for them, 75-76 degrees; it peaked at 77 degrees when the main pump failed when I was 3500 miles away (of course).
Has anyone experienced this before, and if so did it ever improve or resolve ? I'm fine continue to target feed her with big pieces of food soaked in vitamins, but it would make my life easier if I knew this was not going to be permanent. So far it has been an issue for about three weeks.
Both were typical pigs eating everything they could, but a few weeks ago the female seems to have developed a visual problem. She is not 'blind' but cannot see food right in front of her face; she sees and tries to eat larger pieces that float by but rarely gets them. The first few days of this she was hiding, but since then has been out swimming like normal, and seems to recognize me and other fish as well as the rockwork.
Her appetite is good. I've been feeding her pieces of squid, octopus, krill, shrimp, and mussel twice a day with a stick. It's difficult to do because it takes her a while to find the food and eat it, meanwhile I have to fend off the male trigger and tangs as well as a zebra eel (who is basically blind but has an incredible sense of smell). I have to watch the eel very closely as he has on numerous occasions bitten the triggerfish when they were eating... he's also bitten me one, and even though he doesn't really have teeth, it hurt! - jaws were crazy strong !!
There are no external signs of disease and her eyes are not cloudy. I did treat the tank with Prazipro to make sure there were no flukes and it had no effect.
Before some asks about my parameters, they aren't great. I had a pump failure while on vacation before this happened with somewhat greater than usual swings in temperature, pH, and conductivity/salinity. However, they were still fairly small as reef tanks go. My nutrients run higher than they should because of non-photosynthetic soft corals and gorgonians not to mention some big eaters including the zebra eel, a 10" sohal tang, and the triggers. But none of the other fish seem have any issues with the conditions including some very delicate species i.e. copperband butterfly and african cleaner wrasse. The triggers do come from deep water and I keep the tank temperature fairly low for them, 75-76 degrees; it peaked at 77 degrees when the main pump failed when I was 3500 miles away (of course).
Has anyone experienced this before, and if so did it ever improve or resolve ? I'm fine continue to target feed her with big pieces of food soaked in vitamins, but it would make my life easier if I knew this was not going to be permanent. So far it has been an issue for about three weeks.
