My Pitiful One-Eyed Fishes

[jacquetlc]

About a month ago, my "China-Imported Orange coloured with reddish fins, white dotted ends" fish was discovered to have only the Right eye remaining. Thought it was going to be a goner ... but till today, still alive and kicking (well!)

Just now while admiring the fishes during break time from ANTM, I realised that one of my Cardinal also has only the Right eye left.

Wonder if anyone else has got the same experience and I'm still amazed by the fact that fishes DO survive with only one eye left! Wonder if they feel the pain... *ouch*

[bleez]

My rummy nose and ruby tetra also have one eye left. They've been in this state for more than a year but still behave and feed as normal. Hmmm...maybe they do feel the pain initially but not now. However, it must still be horrible to find your own eye being gorged out!

[benny]

I also have some 1 eye fishes resulting from agression and diseases. They survive without problem or special care.

Make sure you have no 'eye eating' fish in your tank. I had Macropodus opercularis that will gorge out all the eyes of my other fishes over night! real terror!

Cheers,

[Johnc]

Most non-predatory, non-hunting fishes will do well with one eye since depth perception is not very important. If you have an archer fish with one eye, it will probably die of hunger unless it begins to take other food.

Hmm... did not know that Macropodus opercularis will attack eyes. I never had problem with them. But it has been many years since I kept and bred them. Is that a known behaviour (like scale eating habit of the Therapon jarbua and Perissodus microlepis) or was it just that individual?

/John

[benny]

Hmm... did not know that Macropodus opercularis will attack eyes. I never had problem with them. But it has been many years since I kept and bred them. Is that a known behaviour (like scale eating habit of the Therapon jarbua and Perissodus microlepis) or was it just that individual?

Nope. Had quite a lot of them and even in separate tanks, they are the same. They usually strike at night where they can get clost to their prey, be it mid level fishes or bottom level fishes.

One evening, I added 10 harlequin rasboras in my tank and the next day, all ten were alive, but all without both eyes. The only other fishes were Macropodus opercularis, which looks really well fed.

Cheers,

[Johnc]

Argh! And I was just going to buy a trio to breed them again. Thanks for the warning.

Jacquetlc, sorry for going off-topic on your thread. But in any case, you don't happen to have a Macropodus opercularis (paradise fish) in your tank causing the trouble do you?

/John

[jacquetlc]

Did a search on Macro. Oper. ... paradise fish... saw some pics... somehow, I don't have any copy of them in my tank...

I really wonder who's the culprit...

[Johnc]

From your fauna list in your signature, I can only think of one possibility if it is due to injury -- your ghost shrimp. These are known to be predatory when they are more mature. Cardinals sleep on on plants and the substrate where the shrimps wander. I have seen larger ghost shrimps (or what appears to be ghost shrimps when younger) grab sleeping fishes by jabbing at the mouth with their pincers and then starting to eat them alive.

This may or may not be the case with your cardinals... so don't panic yet. Observe the shrimp in the dark to see what it is up to. The injuries may be totally unrelated to it.

/John

[benny]

What John said is true. Ghost shrimps are scavengers and predatory when there are opportunities. But usually when their prey is near them and are weak or caught off guard.

What's the red fish in your tank?

Cheers,

[Justikanz]

Hi Jacquetic, think you could find out more about what fish you have? If you know someone who might help who is staying near you, invite him or her over to help decipher what fish you have. Or borrow a book from the Library or buy a book from any good bookstores.

It is definitely much easier than using general description like floating, long mouth needle like silver fish, swallow tail fish, red fish, snake fish, leopard print squarish-roundish loaches (Bottom feeders) and ghost. And it helps in the long run.

In the mean time, try to search for the fish you have using the AQ Gallery for clues.

We would be able to help you better.

Cheers!

PS: I think you mean 'wild' guppy and not 'wildlife' guppy.

[jacquetlc]

Yup... So Pai Seh...

Thought of it when I'm doing posting except I still can't figure out the names.
I am still trying very hard to try get the scientific/common names for my fishes and plants.

Will do update once done!

Thanks bros!

[Justikanz]

Hey, no worries. It is a stage we all go through. We can help if you have pictures. Things will go much faster...

[jacquetlc]

Hey, no worries. It is a stage we all go through. We can help if you have pictures. Things will go much faster...

ON! I think I'm better with my camera! I'll post the pics here for identification... Thanks in Advance!

[Justikanz]

Post that in Freshwater Fauna or AquaTalk.

Oh, do that for your plants too, if you need help for that too.

[jacquetlc]

It never rains but it pours!!! disaster strikes... bad feng shui!!!

Added two rams and 10+ malayan shrimps bought from pasir ris farm on Sunday evening.

suddenly over 1 - 2 days, about 6 of my malayan shrimps died! And to make it worse, they are my bigger ones and their corpse are red!!! like they were steamed ... *sigh*

that's not all... my existing female Ram seems to have this 'bua-lu-ku' on her forehead between her eyes ... and from my inspection just now, the 'blemish' on her forehead seems to have become bigger and turned whitish-pinkish... IS this NORMAL for ram? *duh...*

[jacquetlc]

forgot to add that she will come up to surface level (which is quite rare for rams?) pretty often these two days...

this is how she looks now, with the 'blemish' on her forehead...

[Johnc]

Your ram is infected with a parasiting protozoan. One of our dwarf cichilid experts should be able to advise on how to treat it. But what I can say is that the prognosis is not good once it has reach this stage.

/John

[michael lai]

Hi Jacquetlc,
Like John said, it doesn't looks good for that Ram. The last time my ram surfaced, they were gone that week. Just in case, you are not aware. That is a 'baloon' ram. From what you have said, your water parameters are off if your malayan shrimps are dropping off like that. You might want to take a look over there, do some tests with the kits.

[jacquetlc]

My tank used to be a no-fert tank. Added liquid fert into tank on Monday. Then after my shrimps started to get 'steamed' and drop dead... *sigh*...

Could it be the fert thatz off-balancing my water... duh...

[jacquetlc]

Oh dear... sounds like my ram is just waiting for her death day to come... *sad* ...