OMG! My fish lost an eye.

by Mykuhl Thu Aug 21, 2014 2:17 pm

Wow...I just turned the lights on in my African cichlid tank and what do a I see? One of my peacocks is missing an eye! The eye is completely gone! There is no bleeding and he seems fine otherwise. What should I do if anything? Should I take him out and isolate him so it doesn't get infected or will he heal up fine in the tank with the others?

This has never happened to me before. Just a little e freaked out about it.

by GaryE Thu Aug 21, 2014 3:00 pm

It might be interesting to know who else is in there, to have eaten the eye. I ask because there are some specialised eye eaters in Lake Malawi, and while you probably don't have one, you never know. Dimidiochromis compressiceps is the Malawi eyebiter. I have seen them for sale in stores, and not always at high prices. In the wild, they are known for picking eyeballs out of living prey (what a way to make a living) but in aquariums, they don't always show their natural behavior.

He is now handicapped, but he should survive as long he gets to keep the other eye. I had a one eyed South American cichlid for years.

by nyleveiam Thu Aug 21, 2014 3:37 pm

I had a one eyed Angel for several years. He did just fine and was with 4 other angels. His was injured when I got him about dime sized, a few days later I noticed it was gone.
No infection, no nothing once he learned to spot the food with his one eye.

by Starfish Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:47 pm

I had a one-eyed black skirt for about a year. Actually, she still had the eye but it no longer worked because of pop-eye. She did fine but only went after the food that fell down on the side with the eye. But then she would adjust and look around for more.

by **Biulu** Thu Aug 21, 2014 9:50 pm

It doesn't have to be a specialised eye eater; it can be a matter of competition within a species. I had it with a sparkler and they were in a species tank.

by GaryE Fri Aug 22, 2014 6:32 am

They can easily lose an eye on a scrap. It's not uncommon.

However, since you have a Malawi tank, and since eyebiters are often sold as "African Cichlids" , it's worth a google images search to see if you have one. If you do the problem becomes more complex.

I realize you may know 100 times more about Malawis than I do, but since we don't really know each other, I just throw these things out just in case. I noticed some poorly identified eyebiters in a shop a while back and read up on them. At the time, I wondered what would happen if an aquarist bought one for a Malawi community and had it act on instinct. It probably wouldn't stop at one eyeball....

I have had several cyclops fish over the years through, just from normal sparring.

by Mykuhl Fri Aug 22, 2014 2:41 pm

Thank you everyone for your stories of one eyed fish. It makes me feel better that he will be fine.

Gary,
Thanks for that information. I do know about the malawi eyebiter, and know for sure that I don't have one of those. The other fish I have in that tank are not known to be particularly aggressive. I have other peacocks, a couple of protomelas, a Hap ahli, a yellow lab, 2 calvus and 2 frontosa. I have a feeling that it might have been the Hap ahli, as he is the most aggressive one in there.

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OMG! My fish lost an eye.

OMG! My fish lost an eye.

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