Another "Lost Eye"-thread

[hellofishy 5]

Hello eveyone!

A week ago my fish's eye got eaten by one of my bigger fish. Since then she has been in QT in a 10 gal tank. We've been doing daily water changes dosed with 0.1% salt ever since and her wound has healed up nicely. There has been no sign of any infection or any other alarming symptoms. She has always been her active self. Now I've got a couple questions.

- How long will her wound take to heal completely?

- For how long should we continue with the salt?
- Would you advise me to release her to the main tank with the fish, which has eaten her eye and has kept harassing her to release eggs? (She has released eggs on a regular basis in the past due to his butt nudging.)
- If yes, when should I put her back?

Here is a video of her during today's water change:

Thank you for your help.

Edited February 12, 2017 by hellofishy

[Butterfly 485]

I was in a similar situation a while back. Big Bob, aka Sid Fishious, my big Thai oranda ate the eye of my golf ball pearl (both female). I put One Eye in QT to heal, then several weeks later rearranged the main tank decor and put One Eye back. All was fine for a few months until I came down one day to this:



But fresh and raw and the poor fish was obviously like "Oh no! All the lights are out now!". So now she lives in her own tank with an equally handicapped friend.




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Edited February 12, 2017 by Butterfly

[Arctic Mama 3,626]

The fish who tend to eat other fish don't stop.  When the wound has healed and no longer looks grainy or has little white bits of flesh hanging you can return the injured fish - a week is usually plenty.  But then I'd remove the culprit and keep them in their own tank to protect your other fish.  Otherwise it is likely to happen again as Butterfly experienced. 

 

Usually the one eyed and no eyed fish can still find food just fine, they do it by smell and not sight primarily.  But you may want to watch carefully and put some extra right by her nose if she seems a little slower to grab food than the others.  That's true whether a fish had a handicap or not though

[hellofishy 5]

Thank you both for replying. 

Why won't my bigger fish stop harrassing her? I mean, where is this behavior coming from?

Is there something I can do about that while keeping them both in one tank?

The thing is that only my smallest fish, which is the one eyed, is the only one which is being harassed. I added her about 6 months ago. 

The main tank holds 300L water and they are usually 4 of them inside along with 2 nerites and 1 ramshorn snail.

Also I have no space for another 20g tank to keep them separated. ?

[shakaho 6,312]

As Taryl said, once a fish eats an eye, it will continue to do so as long as it has a tankmate with an eye.  I don't know if after it has eaten all the eyes it might start on fins or some other body part.  If you can find or make a tank divider to isolate this fish from the others, that should protect the remaining eyes.  You may be able to rehome him to someone who wants to keep just one goldfish, or you can euthanize the eye eater.

[hellofishy 5]

Thank you, Sharon. 

[Butterfly 485]

My eye eating oranda went after one of my bubble eyes after I removed the pearlscale from the tank. I then moved her (the eye eater) to a tank with equally or more able fishes and she has not eaten other eye since.

So... not the worst thing in the world... it just means a reason for MORE TANKS!!!!!!!! Yay!







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[koko 14,340]

42 minutes ago, Butterfly said:

[hellofishy 5]

16 hours ago, Butterfly said:

My eye eating oranda went after one of my bubble eyes after I removed the pearlscale from the tank. I then moved her (the eye eater) to a tank with equally or more able fishes and she has not eaten other eye since.

So... not the worst thing in the world... it just means a reason for MORE TANKS!!!!!!!! Yay!







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? 

Thanks for the heads up! ❤