Blotched anthias going blind?

[MaitlandReef]

We've had a blotched (borbonius) anthias since February 9th, 2025. We got him as a juvenile and he was lovingly named Jaws because he was the tank terror and would eat anything and everything. When he wasn't hovering under the spot where food gets dumped in, waiting for food, he was busy chasing other fish and being the tank boss, even over our larger yellow tang. He grew quickly over the past year and a half, and a LFS dropped off a second tank in June and commented that he was the fattest blotchy they've ever seen.

In mid-July, we noticed his behavior was changing. He was no longer aggressive towards other fish at all. He was still eating, but just very passive overall. A complete 180 in temperament. Slowly, we started noticing that he seemed to be having trouble seeing food. It seemed like he would just open his mouth and try to eat things that weren't in front of him, like he was seeing food that wasn't there. His eyes seemed to look different and my husband suspected eye flukes. About 3 weeks ago, Jaws started only coming out of his normal sleeping cave very early in the mornings, before other fish were really awake, and would go back to his cave as soon as the lights came on and would not budge until the next morning, not even coming out for food. We have tried to catch him so many times, but he always swims away and it's impossible to catch him with all our rock work and corals. My husband has now done two rounds of praziquantel to the tank, hoping it was eye flukes, but he has not improved at all. He's not scratching on anything, he doesn't have any specks of white on him.

Every morning now before the tank lights come on, Jaws comes out of his cave and hovers in the same corner. We are able to target feed him with the coral feeder when he's in that corner and last week it seemed like he could kinda see because he would eat large pieces, but would still try to eat absolutely nothing and once bit the tip of a soft coral near him (I think he thought it was food). He's become extremely passive towards other fish, and when they get close to him because they want food too, he goes back to his cave. He will return to the normal hovering spot in the corner, but as soon as the blue lights come on, he's gone for the rest of the day. He seems to know the coral feeder is coming towards him because he starts trying to eat as soon as it approaches him. This morning, his vision seems worse. I only saw him eat one piece of frozen shrimp, the rest of the time he was trying to eat but just opening his mouth and snapping at nothing.

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on? His eyes still look different. He wants to eat, he tries to eat, but he has to be target fed between the hours of 7:30am and 9:30am which is when the blue lights come on and all the other fish are more active and he goes back to his cave and will not move until the next morning. He's extremely shy and passive now, when he used to be the one chasing other fish.

I know blotchy's are deep water fish and generally don't like bright lights, but Jaws was perfectly fine, healthy, and an aggressive eater from February 2025-July 2026 and the lights didn't bother him.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

We've had a blotched (borbonius) anthias since February 9th, 2025. We got him as a juvenile and he was lovingly named Jaws because he was the tank terror and would eat anything and everything. When he wasn't hovering under the spot where food gets dumped in, waiting for food, he was busy chasing other fish and being the tank boss, even over our larger yellow tang. He grew quickly over the past year and a half, and a LFS dropped off a second tank in June and commented that he was the fattest blotchy they've ever seen.

In mid-July, we noticed his behavior was changing. He was no longer aggressive towards other fish at all. He was still eating, but just very passive overall. A complete 180 in temperament. Slowly, we started noticing that he seemed to be having trouble seeing food. It seemed like he would just open his mouth and try to eat things that weren't in front of him, like he was seeing food that wasn't there. His eyes seemed to look different and my husband suspected eye flukes. About 3 weeks ago, Jaws started only coming out of his normal sleeping cave very early in the mornings, before other fish were really awake, and would go back to his cave as soon as the lights came on and would not budge until the next morning, not even coming out for food. We have tried to catch him so many times, but he always swims away and it's impossible to catch him with all our rock work and corals. My husband has now done two rounds of praziquantel to the tank, hoping it was eye flukes, but he has not improved at all. He's not scratching on anything, he doesn't have any specks of white on him.

Every morning now before the tank lights come on, Jaws comes out of his cave and hovers in the same corner. We are able to target feed him with the coral feeder when he's in that corner and last week it seemed like he could kinda see because he would eat large pieces, but would still try to eat absolutely nothing and once bit the tip of a soft coral near him (I think he thought it was food). He's become extremely passive towards other fish, and when they get close to him because they want food too, he goes back to his cave. He will return to the normal hovering spot in the corner, but as soon as the blue lights come on, he's gone for the rest of the day. He seems to know the coral feeder is coming towards him because he starts trying to eat as soon as it approaches him. This morning, his vision seems worse. I only saw him eat one piece of frozen shrimp, the rest of the time he was trying to eat but just opening his mouth and snapping at nothing.

Does anyone have any idea what could be going on? His eyes still look different. He wants to eat, he tries to eat, but he has to be target fed between the hours of 7:30am and 9:30am which is when the blue lights come on and all the other fish are more active and he goes back to his cave and will not move until the next morning. He's extremely shy and passive now, when he used to be the one chasing other fish.

I know blotchy's are deep water fish and generally don't like bright lights, but Jaws was perfectly fine, healthy, and an aggressive eater from February 2025-July 2026 and the lights didn't bother him.

"Eye Flukes" is a misnomer - the fluke commonly seen on a fish's eyes is Neobendenia. They actually live all over the fish's body, but just can be seen best when they cause cloudy eyes. There is another, much rarer, internal eye fluke, but I don't think that is the issue here.

What foods have you been feeding it?

I'm worried about hepatic lipidosis, fatty liver. The bulky body and length of time you've had it all line up with that issue.

 

[MaitlandReef]

"Eye Flukes" is a misnomer - the fluke commonly seen on a fish's eyes is Neobendenia. They actually live all over the fish's body, but just can be seen best when they cause cloudy eyes. There is another, much rarer, internal eye fluke, but I don't think that is the issue here.

What foods have you been feeding it?

I'm worried about hepatic lipidosis, fatty liver. The bulky body and length of time you've had it all line up with that issue.

Thank you, @Jay Hemdal .

Jaws was eating frozen P.E. mysis, frozen LRS, frozen spirulina brine, and maybe once or twice a month my husband would put in roe that he gobbled up. Now he is eating larger pieces of P.E. mysis and LRS since that seems to be all he can see, but not nearly as much as he used to eat.

Is there anything we can do for hepatic lipidosis?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thank you, @Jay Hemdal .

Jaws was eating frozen P.E. mysis, frozen LRS, frozen spirulina brine, and maybe once or twice a month my husband would put in roe that he gobbled up. Now he is eating larger pieces of P.E. mysis and LRS since that seems to be all he can see, but not nearly as much as he used to eat.

Is there anything we can do for hepatic lipidosis?

I'm not 100% certain it is fatty liver, but it does seem like it to me. There also aren't really any other diagnoses that come to my mind.

I've fed out a LOT of PE Mysis, and I'm not convinced that it doesn't contribute to this issue, I've seen it in my fish also. It isn't only about the type of feed fed, but the amount. Fish don't store fat well, and it ends up getting stored in their liver.

Here is a write-up I did on this subject:

Fatty liver​

A major chronic health problem facing most long-term captive fishes is “fatty liver disease,” or liver degeneration. Fish do not assimilate fats well, so often, if a fish's diet is too high in fat, it will then be deposited in various tissues, especially the liver. Unlike with mammals, this fat is not readily usable during times of starvation. Even if food is withheld from a fat-laden fish, very little of the fat is ever reconverted into usable energy. Some fish do not show outward signs of obesity, especially sedentary species such as groupers and lionfish. In these, fatty liver disease may only be diagnosed after death, when sections of the liver will show oil droplets and pieces of the liver itself will float in seawater. With many animals, a period of acute anorexia can cause liver damage.

Fatty liver disease is most common in adult fish whose growth rate has slowed considerably. Younger fish tend to grow fast enough to minimize fat deposition—excess calories are turned into muscle tissue instead. With long-term captive fish, fatty liver disease is the leading cause of (or contributor to) death. Virtually every lionfish held in captivity longer than three years will show evidence of fatty liver disease upon necropsy.

What techniques are available to solve this problem? Nothing can be done for a fish once fatty liver disease has become evident. Prevention is the only course of action an aquarist can take. Simply putting the fish on a "diet" may not work, in that this may result in increased aggression towards other fish in the aquarium. The best solution is to avoid feeding herbivores diets high in meat proteins and to train carnivores to feed on low-protein, low-fat diets such as squid or gelatin diet. Also, avoid feeding any saturated fats to fish. Overall dietary fat levels should be less than 16% in actively growing fish and less than 9% in adult fish.

Vitamin E supplementation is often used in an attempt to prevent fatty liver disease and liver degeneration, which is one of the top chronic health problems of captive fishes. Even with vitamin E supplementation you can still see fatty liver disease issues, either due to vitamin E depletion as a result of feeding slightly rancid (peroxide containing) feeds, or because other aspects of the fatty acid metabolism incorrect, such as feeding cold water fish species to tropical fishes.

There has also been a theory that feeding freshwater fish to predatory marine fish will cause malnutrition and fatty liver disease. Most of the rationale behind this has to do with slightly different fat profiles between marine and freshwater prey fish species. Credence is given to the theory when so many marine aquarists report that they lost their lionfish to liver degeneration after feeding them live freshwater goldfish (See the next section for an alternative hypothesis regarding issues with feeder goldfish). In reality, they would have run into the same trouble had they fed any single fish species as a diet for their lionfish. Feeding carnivores too frequently can also cause fatty liver disease. The general recommendation is to feed larger carnivores only twice a week.