HELP with Tang...can they possibly lose sight as suggested??

L

LuHockey2

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I have a Red Sea Tang that I have had for over a year that in the past few days has not eaten real well & acted funny. He has not lost weight, but today has seemed to lose control of direction while swimming. He is still swimming strong, but seems to bump into things once he is going. The only visible oddity I see is a small area around his mouth. I have included pics. There is no ich on him and no other problems. He has no fish in the tank that bother him, he is usually the most aggressive fish in the tank. He is 4-5" long in a 120 gal tank.

Does anyone have any guesses as to what might be wrong?

Thanks
 
image doesnt work as in you cant see it, or it doesnt help?

Just curious cause when I view the board from my house I can see the pic. The fish is starting to breathe heavy and swim very fast around the tank often looking tired. Not sure he is going to make it. :cry:
 
Wow that's unfortunate. Nothing I see in the pic causes great concern. The bump on the mouth does look like some sort of growth but nothing life threatening.

I fear he has some internal parasite, disease, or cancer which there is not a lot you can do.

He looks pretty heal;thy from the pic with no signs of HLLE or anything. Sorry I couldn't help more!
 
yeah, I dont see anything visually life threatening either. I have had the fish almost 2 years, and it has always been very healthy & the dominate fish in the tank. Pretty frustrating to just watch its health deteriorate until it dies......

thanks for the help
 
you know, my wife said that and I thought she was crazy. you have heard of this before? It completely looks as though that is what happened. He swims very strong in the tank, and then lightly bumps a coral or rock and darts off in another direction. He swims right past food, I just thought he was sick & uninterested, I guess he really might not see it. I guess there is nothing that can be done, since I assume he will starve if he cannot see the food to eat it. Has anyone else heard of this?
 
Brian,

Have you tried scaring the fish with a net? Truely, if he is blind, then you should be able to catch him with a net.

If you are able to catch him with the net without trying hard, then, you would need to go with Matt suggestion otherwise you should feed it garlic so the fish can build the immune system.
 
Brian,
That sucks about your fish...I'm really sorry. Those are one of my favorite tangs. I hope he pulls thru. If he doesn't though, whatever you do, don't freeze him. That's a really painful and inhumane way to put down a fish IMO. Freezing affects the capillary blood vessels under the skin, causing the fish great pain before it loses consciousness. Anyway, hope that stuff from my tank is doing good in yours.
 
We had a male crosshatch trigger go blind. We were able to feed him this way for a year before he died. We would tap him on the mouth with tongs and he would eat the food in the tongs. Sometimes if a fish bumped into him he would think it was food and bite them. He learned where the rocks were and would swim laps around the tank all day. He obviously didn't know where the fish were and would swim into them - especially the dog face puffers because they wouldn't get out of his way and he would spin them in circles.
 
Might wanna check out your water params; I've /heard/ blindness can be caused by low pH and/or stress. Whether or not that's true, I'm not sure. Maybe some of the more knowledgable members can chime in.

As far as the future of the fish goes, were they ever big on seaweed? I wouldn't imagine blindess being much of a hinder in grazing on large items, unless they're too scared to even eat. And like Nicki had done, you could use large pieces of meaty food fare.
 
I hope it doesn't come to this, but here's a good thread about euthanizing a fish:

http://www.dfwmas.org/Forums/viewtopic.php?t=25974&sid=2931ca9d01fbd5a1fdc80ec3374405b6
 
I have this question posed on Reef Central as well, and someone there asked me if I have had any metal in the tank. I have some large tweezers that are metal that I feed my Eel with, I obtained them from a friend that is knowledgable in the hobby.
Does anyone have knowledge that the metal tweezers could be the cause of the blindness. I will stop use of the tweezers until I find out more info, none of the other fish have been affected.

Thanks[/u]
 
If they are stainless steel, that is fine. However, don't leave them (or any metal) in your tank. Always remove it once done, rinse it and pat it dry.
 
Marc,

yes, they are stainless. I do dry them after use. There is no rust or anything on them.

so, I can continue to use them and presume they are safe?

Thanks for the comments
 
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