EMERGENCY: Tetra with no eye

Sorry if this is in the wrong place.... I was doing my weekly w/c when I noticed I couldn't see one of my tetra. When I looked for him, I found him hiding under one of my plants, totally missing his eye. I instantly moved him to a little tiny plastic pot so I could see the damage, and the eye is definitely totally gone. I don't have quarintine (I made the newbie mistake of thinking I wouldnt need it, what a big mistake) and now I have nowhere to keep him. Parimiters are ammonia=0 nitrite=0 nitrate= 15 I tried to feed him a dried bloodworm but he didnt touch it. I have no way of heating his water in his tub, at the moment its okay but I don't know how I can keep it warm. He is leaning to th side slightly, missing eye up, and all his movement is very small and jerky, and he is struggling to swim at all. I have no medication/ metafix and I don't know how soon I could go out and get some. I really want to be optimistic but I don't want him to suffer

 

HI Chloep,
Have you got a breeding net you could pop him in in the main tank to keep him warm etc? They are only cheap if you need one. I'm sorry his lost the eye, I have no other sugestions atm but I'm sure someone else might.

 

Sorry to say, I only have a regular net, but I may go out and buy a breeding net asap

 

One of my tetras lost an eye after being attacked by endlers in my friends tank. She didnt medicate, just kept the water pristine and he was just fine and we named him Eye Ball Paul. When he came to me he was the largest, most active and greediest of all my tetras.
Keep a close eye on him and keep the water as clean as possible.
Do you have any idea how he lost the eye?

 

Well due to the no filter thing I had to reintroduce Patch (yes, that's his name now) to the tank, and I was watching the tetra behavior. There seems to be two bullies constantly nipping at the other 4 fish, and I am now worried for the others, besides the fact that Patch is struggling to swim and so I have no idea how he would get food

 

Let him be and don't worry too much over the missing eye. I introduced a betta into my tank after breaking his home. A neon tetra's eye went suddenly missing the next day. It took a while for him to adjust, but boy if he didn't! He swam a bit sideways some time but he became one of my favorite fish of all time.

You just have to keep your waters nice and clean so infection doesn't follow.

 

Many fish lose eyes, good thing is, the eye isn't a fishes only sensory organ, they also have the lateral line, as well as smell, patch should be able to adapt to its missing eye, just keep the water as pristine as possible to avoid infection whilst the wound heals over, and maybe try spot feeding him live foods for a little while so he can adapt to registering food more with his lateral line.

 

Patch is cute but I'd go with "fishy wap" jokes aside he should be just fine but I would do more frequent water changes. Side note, I find the female tetras are very rude and nippy and I have started only buying males.

 

I've also noticed that the females seem to be a little more aggressive than the males, but it might be because the female tetras I have are a tiny bit larger than their male counterparts.