Can fish go blind at some point?

[FunnyFish]

I know this may seem absolutely ridiculous to ask, but I have this little honey gourami that realizes it's feeding time as the other fish are excited and she swims up to the food and through it all missing all the pellets. She is always on the bottom looking for the excess food to pick out of the gravel too or else she likes to just sit on the floor of the rank or hide in the Vallisneria. She is definitely smaller than the others in the tank and I know she isn't being picked on by the other honey, as they've been housed together for almost a year with lots of hiding spots. She seems a little skinny to me too but I feel it's because of this eating situation and not seeing the food. I first noticed this back in September and I thought she was going to pass when I went away on vacation and she came roaring right back to life, it now over the last week I've noticed this behaviour again with feeding time and missing the food.

Sorry for the dumbness of this post, but if she is maybe going blind, how the heck to I feed her to make sure she can thrive like the rest?

 

[BlueRaccoon]

This isn't a stupid question. You're trying to work through possibilities.

So before September she was eating this specific food? Do you only feed this food, or does she do the same thing with different foods?

 

[FunnyFish]

She does the same with any foods I try to feed her. I feed micro pellets and frozen brine shrimp. I have tired other flakes and such with everyone in the tank, and they aren't liked as much as the two options fed most often. They don't seem to like flakes so much.

It's like she knows it's feeding time and is frantically swimming around the tank looking for food and it can be falling right in front of her and she won't see it. Heck, I've even seen food bounce right off her head. This is what's lead me to believe that maybe blindness was a possibility.

 

[ForBettaorForWorse]

Fish can be blind, and there's a few different ways to train the fish to know that it's time for food. I wrote this article about blind bettas, but it should translate over to your gourami. I hope it helps you figure out a plan for what to do
Taking Care of Blind Bettas

 

[SparkyJones]

Easy way to tell is to just come in with a net, if it doesn't try to get out of the way of it at all it's blind.

If it avoids the net, it can see to some degree still.

With food issues it's more likely it's their smell that is the issue unable to tell the difference between food and rocks without mouthing it first

 

[A201]

Of course fish can & do go blind. Injury, cataracts, disease or poor genetics all contribute to blindness.
When blindness occurs to a fish, one or both eyes will eventually glaze over.

 

[Nate0331]

Easy way to tell is to just come in with a net, if it doesn't try to get out of the way of it at all it's blind.

If it avoids the net, it can see to some degree still.

With food issues it's more likely it's their smell that is the issue unable to tell the difference between food and rocks without mouthing it first

What sparky said about the sense of smell for sure. I had a gar pike that lost both eyes entirely and he ate more after that than when he had eyes. Never saw him miss grabbing a fast moving fish as it swam by and he had no eyeballs. I'm sure different fish have varying degrees of smell though so take that story with that consideration.

 

[FunnyFish]

Fish can be blind, and there's a few different ways to train the fish to know that it's time for food. I wrote this article about blind bettas, but it should translate over to your gourami. I hope it helps you figure out a plan for what to do
Taking Care of Blind Bettas

Thank you, I will give this a read.

Easy way to tell is to just come in with a net, if it doesn't try to get out of the way of it at all it's blind.

If it avoids the net, it can see to some degree still.

With food issues it's more likely it's their smell that is the issue unable to tell the difference between food and rocks without mouthing it first

So I came in with a plastic cup and was able to scoop her right up. I tried to feed her that way but she wasn't having it. She was angry once she realized she was in a cup. The others swam away real quick. So maybe this is my answer. I do feel like she can still see to some degree but only if it's close up.

Of course fish can & do go blind. Injury, cataracts, disease or poor genetics all contribute to blindness.
When blindness occurs to a fish, one or both eyes will eventually glaze over.

I have been watching her eyes to see if this happens and I haven't noticed the glaze over yet, it they are a glowing red colour. Maybe the glaze will still happen. I have noticed a little fin rot happening in her back tail. This is also the fish that I had issues with in September and I thought she was dying but then came back full force. No other issues in my tank, other than some one offs that I have noticed and have corrected with Ruby tetra.

 

[SparkyJones]

Thank you, I will give this a read.

So I came in with a plastic cup and was able to scoop her right up. I tried to feed her that way but she wasn't having it. She was angry once she realized she was in a cup. The others swam away real quick. So maybe this is my answer. I do feel like she can still see to some degree but only if it's close up.

I have been watching her eyes to see if this happens and I haven't noticed the glaze over yet, it they are a glowing red colour. Maybe the glaze will still happen. I have noticed a little fin rot happening in her back tail. This is also the fish that I had issues with in September and I thought she was dying but then came back full force. No other issues in my tank, other than some one offs that I have noticed and have corrected with Ruby tetra.

Yeah. If you can just easily sneak up on them and they don't realize what's going on around them the fish is blind. I had this with some of my fry as they were growing to juveniles, some couldn't see at all and I figured out the net thing. If they can't see they won't get away from it. You can try with your hand next and see how close you can get, they should be able to pick up the solid object approaching with their lateral line if it doesn't do that and let's you grab it, it's got some level of brain damage and has no survival skill to avoid danger.

If it's finding food it's OK though, just want to be careful with not picking aggressive tankmates because it won't see or sense them coming. I'd say the cup would be similar to a hand and a sign of brain damage, maybe from the illness it had.

Is she still really using her feelers to investigate things, or is that functioning different with her from the other gouramis? Maybe using them more or less?

 

[FunnyFish]

Well thankfully other than the 3 other honey gourami that are in there with her, she has no other issues. I have a very peaceful community of gourami, danio, ruby tetra, cories, Otos and shrimp, so she is safe in that sense. Other than the gourami doing their thing and chasing you away if you get in their space. Nothing more harmful than that and they were all raised together since day one.

I did put my finger up to the tank where she was and she came over to me to see what it was. When I put my hand in the tank near her, she let me get close enough, but not to the point I was able to scoop her up. This leads me to believe she can either sense me or has slight form of vision still. The cup I scooped her up in yesterday was clear, to be fair.

She does pick up food off the bottom of the tank and picks off the plants and such, all the time. It's just the danio and cories are quick to the food as well, so I just want to keep her eating and stable at this point. I could try to feed her a frozen bloodworm by aquarium tweezers and see if she sees it or even eats it. It's just trying to keep the savage zebra danios away, haha.

As for the feelers, I don't notice it being any more or less as she likes to stay around the mid to bottom of the tank and hide in the plants on a good day. She's the smallest one in there so it's a matter of her just keeping to herself I think. I put some corkscrew vals in there and she really likes to hide in those now. I'm just really focused on getting her food to keep her strong and as as healthy as possible.

 

[SparkyJones]

Well thankfully other than the 3 other honey gourami that are in there with her, she has no other issues. I have a very peaceful community of gourami, danio, ruby tetra, cories, Otos and shrimp, so she is safe in that sense. Other than the gourami doing their thing and chasing you away if you get in their space. Nothing more harmful than that and they were all raised together since day one.

I did put my finger up to the tank where she was and she came over to me to see what it was. When I put my hand in the tank near her, she let me get close enough, but not to the point I was able to scoop her up. This leads me to believe she can either sense me or has slight form of vision still. The cup I scooped her up in yesterday was clear, to be fair.

She does pick up food off the bottom of the tank and picks off the plants and such, all the time. It's just the danio and cories are quick to the food as well, so I just want to keep her eating and stable at this point. I could try to feed her a frozen bloodworm by aquarium tweezers and see if she sees it or even eats it. It's just trying to keep the savage zebra danios away, haha.

As for the feelers, I don't notice it being any more or less as she likes to stay around the mid to bottom of the tank and hide in the plants on a good day. She's the smallest one in there so it's a matter of her just keeping to herself I think. I put some corkscrew vals in there and she really likes to hide in those now. I'm just really focused on getting her food to keep her strong and as as healthy as possible.

Doing all the right things that you can. Try the tweezers thing, she might not take to them right away but keep trying and she'll probably get used to the idea. Maybe she has a problem seeing at distance and feedings get hectic with everyone else all over the place and she don't want to get bumped into so prefers the hermit life and grazing.

I have a 3 year old angel that just grazes off of the tank, hasn't eaten any food In a year from feedings at all, but doesn't lose weight or deteriorate. It helps I'm using a soluable multivitamin to the water and with the feedings anyways, but probably would even do alright without the multivitamin, it just balances out the diet. He gets enough to eat just off algae and biofilm.

 

[FunnyFish]

Doing all the right things that you can. Try the tweezers thing, she might not take to them right away but keep trying and she'll probably get used to the idea. Maybe she has a problem seeing at distance and feedings get hectic with everyone else all over the place and she don't want to get bumped into so prefers the hermit life and grazing.

I have a 3 year old angel that just grazes off of the tank, hasn't eaten any food In a year from feedings at all, but doesn't lose weight or deteriorate. It helps I'm using a soluable multivitamin to the water and with the feedings anyways, but probably would even do alright without the multivitamin, it just balances out the diet. He gets enough to eat just off algae and biofilm.

Well this makes me feel better with the success you've had with your angel. Hopefully I can keep this honey healthy and fed. She is always picking in the substrate for food, even when she was eating so this continues on. I also had another honey in the beginning that wouldn't eat any food and just fed off the tank and was fine, so I'm optimistic now and feel less concerned.

I will definitely try with the tweezers and see if she will learn to eat that way. It would make things easier for her. I do plan on upgrading my tank within the next couple of months too, so this should allow for more feeding room that I can have the danios in one end fighting for food while I feed her. I never considered the feeding chaos for her while losing vision, it's probably very stressful.

Thank you so much for your input on this, and everyone else too. I feel much better on moving forward with her.