Puffer suddenly went blind

[sandwi54]

My first time asking advice on fish disease and hopefully I can get some help from all of you guys.

I have a puffer with ich. Due to its colorations and dimmed lighting I was not able to notice the white spots until last week (probably about 2-3 weeks after the onset of ich infestations). It got bad and I immediately began hyposalinity. It had cloudy eyes, but not bad since I could still see his eyeballs clearly. However, two days ago it all of a sudden went blind in both eyes. It was bumping into things and stopped eating completely. It's been about a week since hypo started, and its breathing returned to the normal rate (~ 65 times/min).

I started maracyn 2 last night, but I've heard that the effect of maracyn 2 is stronger in hyposalinity. I am not sure if this is true because the freshwater version and saltwater version contains the same dosage (10mg of minocycline per 10 gallons). I plan to do half of the dosage starting the second day. Right after the maracyn 2 was applied, the puffer convulsed for a few min, and then stopped. This morning there has been no improvement.

I am quite worried, not only because it appears blind, but also because it stopped eating. Has anyone had this experience before? I know there are a lot of causes for cloudy eyes, but I cannot pinpoint what the direct cause was in this case. If it's blind from the trophonts feeding on the eyes, then it's a huge coincidence that it went blind in both eyes (I would think it would lose vision in one eye first). I am leaning towards a systemic bacterial infection since it also has a slight case of fin rot. Does anyone who has had this experience had the puffer restore its vision after the cloudy eye disappears?

 

[MrTuskfish]

Man, that stinks. I sure don't have any ideas and agree with the antibiotic. I do remember reading of SW aquaculture lab thinking that blindness in a red snapper fingerling was caused by ich getting to the optic nerve.

 

[sandwi54]

Thanks MrTusk. I think perhaps in the extreme case, trophonts could dig deep enough to damage the optical nerve, but having that happen to both eyes is a little hard for me to imagine right now. That's why I'm suspect that cloudy eye is blurring her vision right now, but I have not heard concrete evidence yet, plus her cloudy eye is actually not bad. If I can see her eyeballs, shouldn't she be able to see me?

 

[geaux xman]

Is this your golden puffer? You could try emailing LA/DD, I'm sure they have dealt with fish having vision problems plenty of times and they might be of help.

I've emailed them befoe about a growth on my blueface's mouth and they suggest Bio-bandage and it worked like a charm.

g'luck.

 

[sandwi54]

Thanks for the suggestion. It's not the golden puffer but another one I had. I think I will call LA and hopefully they can help.

 

[angelfish7]

Can it be flukes covering the eyes?

 

[syrinx]

The only thing I have seen leading to blindness in puffers has been poor diet, and copper at too high a dosage. Of course as far as an individual goes, it could be anything. I do know that some antibiotics can cause light sensitivity in humans- perhaps this could also be the case?

 

[sandwi54]

Can it be flukes covering the eyes?

Thanks for the suggestion. I doubt if its flukes since she already went through two rounds of prazipro.

 

[cngreg]

I've seen fish go blind when overdosed copper or metronidazole. Also, if you overdose an ammonia binder (amquel/ammolock/prime) with cupramine, that might blind a fish or even kill it. Also, I've seen fish blinded by having an LED light shined in their eyes. Did you do any of this stuff? It's strange the fish is completely blind with slightly clouded eyes, usually they can still see through foggy corneas. I'm not surprised about eye cloudiness in conjuction with cryptocaryon though. I think that that's pretty common as a secondary infection. I agree to use antibiotics. For cloudy eyes I've had luck with kanamycin (or gentamycin or neomycin), doxycyline, or trimethoprim sulfa. I haven't tried maracyn 2: minocycline, which is in the same family as doxy (the tetracyclins) but I think i remember doxy being the best of the family b/c it stays stable at pH 8 and higher and the rest of the family don't.

 

[geaux xman]

i remember one guy in the fish only section had rec'd a puffer that was blind. i think the situation was there was a screw up with delivery and he didnt get his fish for a couple of days and there might've been some ammonia poisoning.

Not sure if he had gotten the fish from LA or where, but they sent him a new fish i think.

 

[sandwi54]

I've seen fish go blind when overdosed copper or metronidazole. Also, if you overdose an ammonia binder (amquel/ammolock/prime) with cupramine, that might blind a fish or even kill it. Also, I've seen fish blinded by having an LED light shined in their eyes. Did you do any of this stuff? It's strange the fish is completely blind with slightly clouded eyes, usually they can still see through foggy corneas. I'm not surprised about eye cloudiness in conjuction with cryptocaryon though. I think that that's pretty common as a secondary infection. I agree to use antibiotics. For cloudy eyes I've had luck with kanamycin (or gentamycin or neomycin), doxycyline, or trimethoprim sulfa. I haven't tried maracyn 2: minocycline, which is in the same family as doxy (the tetracyclins) but I think i remember doxy being the best of the family b/c it stays stable at pH 8 and higher and the rest of the family don't.

Thanks for all of the good potential causes! The puffer did go through a round of cupramine at 0.35ppm for 3 weeks before, but no water conditioner was used though as I was aware that would turn cupramine into Cu+1. I DID, however, added an actinic LED strip to my lighting one day prior to the blindness. It was the 72" reefbrite tech actinic blue strip. Given that the LED strip was so dim, it is hard for me to imagine if that could cause the blindness, but that is definitely a possibility and also a huge coincidence. I will dig more into this potential cause and report back what I find.

The good news is, the puffer started eating again Friday night (one day after the first dose of maracyn 2 was applied). Last night, it seemed to have regained part or all of his eyesight, as when I went home and walked to the front of QT, it did its usual "dance" to me. It was a huge relief to me and my girlfriend to know that the puffer could at least see something. I will finish the 5-day maracyn 2 treatments and hopefully his cloudy eyes would go away and vision completely restored.

 

[sandwi54]

i remember one guy in the fish only section had rec'd a puffer that was blind. i think the situation was there was a screw up with delivery and he didnt get his fish for a couple of days and there might've been some ammonia poisoning.

Not sure if he had gotten the fish from LA or where, but they sent him a new fish i think.

I remember reading through the 2 pages of thread on that guy's golden puffer. I think he bought it from RHS and UPS did not deliver for 2 days. That poor golden puffer probably went blind from ammonia poisoning, and yes RHS located another golden puffer and sent it to him.

 

[sandwi54]

Thanks again for everyone's suggestion. The maracyn 2 worked. It started eating vigorously as it always had and seemed to have regained full eyesight. The cloudy eye is almost gone too. Today is the 5th day on antibiotics, so I will put in the last dose, and put her into the sump.

My gf and I are setting up a separate tank for the puffer at her house, since the golden puffer was attacking her constantly. I've heard before that mixing guineafowl and golden puffers is a very bad idea, but have not witnessed this first-hand until now. Lesson learned... do not mix similarly shaped puffers!

 

[MrTuskfish]

Thanks again for everyone's suggestion. The maracyn 2 worked. It started eating vigorously as it always had and seemed to have regained full eyesight. The cloudy eye is almost gone too. Today is the 5th day on antibiotics, so I will put in the last dose, and put her into the sump.

My gf and I are setting up a separate tank for the puffer at her house, since the golden puffer was attacking her constantly. I've heard before that mixing guineafowl and golden puffers is a very bad idea, but have not witnessed this first-hand until now. Lesson learned... do not mix similarly shaped puffers!

Glad to hear it cleared up!

 

[sandwi54]

Glad to hear it cleared up!

Thanks! and thanks again for the concern

 

[Mamacheng]

having the same issue here! puffer was badly infected with ich. He had one cloudy eye when moved into the QT and next day the other eye turned cloudy and he cannot see right now. He is also bumping into everything and is not eating at all. I will try the maracyn 2 to see if it will cure him. The copper treatment is working and there are no other signs of stress on him except for the cloudy eyes.