Blind Clownfish

[mssasquatch]

Hi,
I'm a new member to this forum. I have been in saltwater keeping for 8 years. Presently I have had two fish present with similar conditions. Most all my fish are 5+ year. These fish both sebae clowns, started swimming near bottom. They stopped eating. I am presently treating with copper, along with formalite 2. Both medications I have had great success
over the years. Anyhow this morning the larger clown looked very interested in eating, colored looked the best it has in thelast 2 weeks since he has become sick. As the brineshrimp is going past him, he does nothing, but still looked interested. Through the dreaded net in the water test, we discover that he appears to be totally blind! I haven't done the same test on the smaller sebae yet. The tank is a 175 gal, perfect water conditions. I have 2 yellow tangs, cortez angel, foxface, blue damsel, percula and tomato clown in there as well. I'd hate to take them out as my 90 gal tank has 3 very large neon damsels that I am positive will eat these poor clowns in a moment!!
Sorry for my long-windedness. Anyone else ever experience this? Is it reverseable?
Crossing my fingers,
Leslie

 

[beth]

Yes, indeed. I have had this experience and I am currently having this exp. It has only resently occurred to me that my remaining clownfish is blind, but I can't be sure. The female percula died after about 2 mos of stravation...I could not for the life of me see anything wrong with this fish until it finally died. At the end it did have a swollen gill, but I think it straved to death. It looked fine, looked interested in food, but wouldn't eat. Currently I have the male on its death bed after not eating now for over a mo. I see nothing wrong with this fish. It looks interested in eating when food is offerred, but doesn't eat. it is very strange, and sad. I have been dealing with this now since the Fall when this problem started with the female. I keep hoping this male will go ahead and die, but he's still alive. What is keeping him alive is beyond me. I don't even try to feed him anymore. He's on his own in a hospital tank, basically waiting for death.

 

[mssasquatch]

Wow, wasn't the answer I was hoping for. I thought after 8 years I had seen all the diseases and illness that could happen, god knows I think I have had them all! So far it has only affected my two sebaes but I do have a percula, and a tomato in that same tank. Did it ever affect any of your other fish, or did you quarantine right away? Strange thing is nothing has changed in this tank for years! I've add no new fish, I've bought no macroalgae or liverock or anything that could have carried this in. I guess the only good thing is to know I'm not alone in this. Now do you know of a humane way to end a fish live? I don't know if I can bear to watch the outcome. One becomes rather attached to these fish after this many years.
Leslie

 

[mssasquatch]

Oh forgot to mention, I now believe the other sebae is also blind.

 

[mssasquatch]

Hi Terry,
I always ran a quarantine tank, up until about 6 months ago(wouldn't you know it) I shut it down as it was sitting there hardly used. I would normally have just taken the affected fish out of the tank and treated them that way, but these guys have been pretty health from the get go. I now believe that you are correct in your dietary opinion.
Because of living in a small community with lowly educated petstore owners I'm sure there is a lot of missing information that could have been beneficial to me over the years. I guess my own fault too as everything seemed to run just fine the way I was doing it. I do try to vary the diet from frozen, flake, along with putting greens in the tanks. I will most definately go and look into added supplements, this is most certainly my problem.
What would you do with these fish in the mean time? The thought of watching them waste away isn't to appealing to me. Our local vets are not knowledgeable in fishy clients. Help!
Regards,
Leslie