Is My Wrasse Blind Now?

ngoodermuth · May 7, 2019

Lasse said:
I suppose you give all of these medicines prior it got blind. I have a totally different possible explanation for the blindness. You do not see with your eyes - you see with your brain. Among non-migration fish species - the part of the body that contain most fat and have the fastest turnover of fat is the brain. Most of the medicines you mentioned is lipophilic and will bioaccumulate in the fat deposits of the fish (or/and their metabolites) Fat is the primary energy source for most fish species and the fat deposits will be filled or emptied depended off energy intake and energy output. It means that once in the fish – these drugs will be accumulated from and released into the bloodstream in higher and higher levels if they still are in the water (bath) or taken orally. Saltwater fish does drink – it means that these lipophilic drugs have two pathways into the fish. Through gills, body and orally by the water they drink. The excretion rate of these lipophilic drugs (or their metabolites) is normally low in SW fish. Normally is the pathway through the urine – but SW fish pee very little because of osmotic issues (the same reason why they drink water) IMO – this could be an equally good explanation as that the blindness is caused by an unknown microorganism.

The “blindness” occurred some time after being removed from medications... not right away. I do see your point though, I’ve heard of prolonged copper exposure causing blindness, which is why I asked about the copper exposure. It doesn’t seem outside the normal range though.

OP... can you give a short-list... each medication you’ve used and length of treatment? If it is a side-effect of one of the medications used... I’d like to get a better idea of what may have been the cause. Since many other fish have undergone the same treatments, and have not gone blind or been negatively impacted otherwise.

The lack of feeding response is concerning... a fish that is “blind” might not see the food as easily, but they wouldn’t ignore food being held right in front of their nose.

ReefWithCare · May 7, 2019

ngoodermuth said:
The “blindness” occurred some time after being removed from medications... not right away. I do see your point though, I’ve heard of prolonged copper exposure causing blindness, which is why I asked about the copper exposure. It doesn’t seem outside the normal range though.

OP... can you give a short-list... each medication you’ve used and length of treatment? If it is a side-effect of one of the medications used... I’d like to get a better idea of what may have been the cause. Since many other fish have undergone the same treatments, and have not gone blind or been negatively impacted otherwise.

The lack of feeding response is concerning... a fish that is “blind” might not see the food as easily, but they wouldn’t ignore food being held right in front of their nose.

In short order:

Safety Stop - Pre-dipped before going into QT
Prazipro - Dosed 2 times and changed water 2 days after each dose
Metro dosed food - I think I did this for about 10 days
Sulfaplex + Neoplex - He was in the same tank as clowns that got a bacterial infection from fighting. Did the recommended treatment on the box until the red and white on the lips of the clowns went away.
Fen - Dosed for 12 hrs after he started doing that weird spazzing
General Cure - Being fed this now due to suspected internal parasite. Been feeding via a pipette since I mentioned on this topic.

He's gotten progressively worse since smashing his face on my mesh screen while in QT. He was originally a very aggressive eater and very spazzy to people getting close to the tank. He must have hit the mesh screen about once a week while in my 125G then hit it several times when he was QT while downgrading to a 40B.

He was QT'ed once before going into the 125G then again in the 40B. He was re-treated in QT after I cross contaminated my 125G with a QT'ed fish that got ich + bacterial infection. I had to use a different tank and treat all my fish. I treated everyone fully then sold off most of my fish after the treatment and fully disclosed to the people I sold to all the meds the fish got. This wrasse is the only one of the cohort that has had any negative side effects.

Sorry for the bad video quality. I'm recording at 1080P 60FPS but YT never uploads it in HD quality :-/.

ngoodermuth · May 7, 2019

Yea... I think I’m going to stick with my original thoughts. He probably hit the top one too many times and injured his spine when he injured his face.

I’m sorry to say, these things don’t usually resolve. You can try to keep him going as long as you are willing to hand feed, and he is still eating. But, it’s probably just delaying the inevitable.

I don’t suggest euthanasia very often, by this is a case where I would consider it... if it were me

evolved · May 7, 2019

ngoodermuth said:
He doesn’t seem too interested in that food... blind or not.

Does he respond at all if you squirt a little mysis in his direction? Smaller foods?

@evolved, any ideas regarding the above video?

Sure doesn't seem blind to me either, but agree that he's definitely not interested in that food. If anything, I could see the case for light sensitivity rather than blindness, as it seems he sees best where the lighting is the least bright.

ReefWithCare said:
It seems he knows his way around the bottom of the tank now so he will cruise around there. If he swims up he is completely lost and will bump into corals and rocks and sometimes bumps into the damsels. He can sense other fish around him and will flare up.

And this could support a light sensitivity issue too.

But I'm leaning towards the general agreement here that there's only so much you can do, and sometimes giving up is a sensible option.

ReefWithCare · May 21, 2019

To provide an update. He’s still alive and I’m feeding him with a pipette. He seems to have memorized his surroundings and knows his way around most of the tank. He has gotten food on his own but I hand feed to ensure he gets enough. All the other fish leave him alone and treat him like a bottom feeding fish.