Trio123

So I have my heart set on this African Knife at the LFS I work at. He has been there for 5 months and I got a little bond with him. He refuses to eat during the day which is fine with me (I can make a special feeding after the lights are off) but the real problem is his eyes. He definately can see, but I cant tell how well. There is a white dot at the center of both his eyes (it really looks like cataracts). He refuses to go in the tube we typically give knifes and I think that maybe being under direct light all day did some damage to his eyes

What I need to know is if it is a disease and if it's contagious (I've been researching like crazy and cant find anything like it)? If he does go blind how could I insure that he will get food before the gourami's, Congos, and cory cats?

Any other advise about AK's is welcome. Thanks!

susitna-flower

Whether this fish is Gymnarchus nilotieus, or Xenomystus nigri, it is well equipped to find food. I wouldn't worry too much about the white spots, unless the eyes start to "pop", and get cloudy. That would be a bacterial infection. What you describe shouldn't disrupt the fish from sensing its food in the fashion these two commonly use to detect prey.

Trio123

It's Xenomystus nigri, I went ahead and brought him home yesterday. I feed him at night and he doesnt seem to have any problem finding the food or much of a fear of my hand. Comes out of his log and practically eats out of my hand Thank you, the reassurance is nice!


ps I decided to take the chance cause I am putting him in a quarentine tank for two weeks first. And I was pretty sure it wasnt a disease.

COBettaCouple

Congrats, he sounds like a great rescue! Do you have pics of him to post?

Trio123

Here is a pic. You can kinda see his eyes. Fish pictures are so hard though, all of mine either have glowing eyes or thier blurry I have a little video too but it is too large and Im not computer literate enough to figure out how to shrink it

Attached Images

Knife 008.jpg (60.8 KB, 15 views)

susitna-flower

Very good....I'm happy you brought him home. Sounds like a fish that needs someone to love him.

COBettaCouple

He's beautiful! I'm glad he's got a good home now.

Trio123

Good home? I've been trying to kill him for the past week put him in a 10 gallon quarentine that I thought was cycled but, uh duh, he's alot bigger than a betta and a cory cat. ammonia spiked in less than 3 days (got up to3!!! I think feeding live blackworms the first day was a really bad idea they got into the gravel and were uneaten), nitrite is just now starting to go down from 1.6, and the pH keeps jump between 6.5 and 5. Been doing water changes like crazy (25% twice a day, and 50% when the spikes happened), still sucking up fragments of blackworms (I swear I didnt put this much in here, it was the aliens!!) But he's hanging in there along with his cory cat buddy. Fingers crossed and praying in front of the tank seems to be the only other thing I can do.

COBettaCouple

If you're not treating the water with "Prime", I'd recommend that highly. It will help protect them while the tank gets back to cycled and we use it as our regular water conditioner.

Trio123

Ya currently Im using Amquel but someone else suggested that too. I went out looking for it at Petsmart and they didnt have it. I will try Petco tomorrow (I work the graveyard shift so it's hard to wake up in time to make it to a store ) Thank you much!

COBettaCouple

Amquel+ is good. We used that with AquaSafe before changing to Prime and NovAqua+.