Free purple tang

C

cynbob

New member
I have been eyeing a purple tang at a large chain LFS. Well turns out the fish was blind and the LFS manager said to sell it in a week or take it home. So since the guy helping me had one he gave it to me.
I have had him 3 days now. He seems to be content. Swims around my QT tank like a champ. He doesn't seem to be sick at all. I really haven't seen him eat anything substantial though. I have tried nori, garlic, and misis. He bumps into the nori and backs up. He bumps into the sand like he is eating off to bottom but I haven't seen him eat like he should.
So my question(s) are. What can I do to try to help his eye sight? ( i have medicated with copper just in case he had ick) I have done some research and don't find a lot on the subject. ( or at least answers) lots of questions, haven't seen any resolve or follow up
If in fact he is blind forever, how and what do I feed to ensure he stays alive and happy. I am totally ok keeping a beautiful special needs fish. Just need to know how to care for him( her)
 
You need to re-title or start a new thread so you can get help. "Free purple tang" sounds like you are giving way a tang.
 
There are many things that may cause blindness in fish. I know that it was quite an issue in the 70s when I started with reef tanks. Back then high levels of nitrates and phosphates were one of the main suspects, only rivaled by cyanide poisoning. There are also infections and parasites that might cause blindness. In most cases it will be irreversible. Fish that have been seeing in a tank before going blind usually have the best chances to make it as they can usually remember the layout of the tank. Besides eyesight fish also use their sideline organ to sense flow pattern and find their way around obstacles.
If the fish isn't eating for a while now he may have lost his feel of hunger and will likely not start eating on his own again. The only way around that would be force feeding - something that isn't really easy unless you have someone who can teach you. I tried it once and managed to kill the fish faster than the starvation would have done.

The thing I would try is to lower the salinity (to roughly 1.016) and try to find some algae overgrown rocks. The ideal algae would be red macro algae, but green hair algae should do as well.

Ditch the copper and the garlic - booth do more harm than good.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
 
Just hope that he is not completely blind, and it is reversible with good water condition and diet.
I don't see how a completely blind blind fish can survive in a new tank.
 
ThRoewer said:
There are many things that may cause blindness in fish. I know that it was quite an issue in the 70s when I started with reef tanks. Back then high levels of nitrates and phosphates were one of the main suspects, only rivaled by cyanide poisoning. There are also infections and parasites that might cause blindness. In most cases it will be irreversible. Fish that have been seeing in a tank before going blind usually have the best chances to make it as they can usually remember the layout of the tank. Besides eyesight fish also use their sideline organ to sense flow pattern and find their way around obstacles.
If the fish isn't eating for a while now he may have lost his feel of hunger and will likely not start eating on his own again. The only way around that would be force feeding - something that isn't really easy unless you have someone who can teach you. I tried it once and managed to kill the fish faster than the starvation would have done.

The thing I would try is to lower the salinity (to roughly 1.016) and try to find some algae overgrown rocks. The ideal algae would be red macro algae, but green hair algae should do as well.

Ditch the copper and the garlic - booth do more harm than good.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


I will try that. I have some algae in the DT I can move over. Thank you
 
cynbob said:
I have been eyeing a purple tang at a large chain LFS. Well turns out the fish was blind and the LFS manager said to sell it in a week or take it home. So since the guy helping me had one he gave it to me.
I have had him 3 days now. He seems to be content. Swims around my QT tank like a champ. He doesn't seem to be sick at all. I really haven't seen him eat anything substantial though. I have tried nori, garlic, and misis. He bumps into the nori and backs up. He bumps into the sand like he is eating off to bottom but I haven't seen him eat like he should.
So my question(s) are. What can I do to try to help his eye sight? ( i have medicated with copper just in case he had ick) I have done some research and don't find a lot on the subject. ( or at least answers) lots of questions, haven't seen any resolve or follow up
If in fact he is blind forever, how and what do I feed to ensure he stays alive and happy. I am totally ok keeping a beautiful special needs fish. Just need to know how to care for him( her)
Click to expand...
Copper for ich, too much stress. And will have to rely on scent. It is what it is...
He will make it if you stop hurting him with added stress from treatment not totally necessary.

Sent from my Z981 using Tapatalk
 
Ok so a little update. Added back media to get rid of copper. Put in a rock with a lot of algae and pulled all I could out of DT and tossed on the other rocks. I haven't seen him eat on it but he does poke at the sand where he might get some misis ( I pipe it in next to his face)
or alga. he hasn't lost weight and he seems to navigate the tank pretty well. I'm going to leave him be and see what happens. Thanks for the thoughts guys!!
 
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