Could my wrasse be blind or semi blind
 

Melanurus wrasse. I got him last month and had him in qt. He was initially very slow to react to food. The food would have to fall on him for him to know it's there. Eventually he learn to eat from the water column and now is more aggressive at eating... he darts at it but usually misses a lot. And I in can but my hands right up to the glass and he has no reaction. Other fish back off immediately. He seem healthy and eating well. I put him in the the DT last week. Yesterday I tried to grab him with a net and he came right into it first try. Isn't that unusual? Still no reaction when I put my face to him in the glass either.


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It's certainly possible, yes. And by the sounds of it, probable.

I've heard of flukes covering their eyes before. Did you or have you lately tried a freshwater dip?


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This could be possible. Wrasses are starting to come in with flukes now. Any other symptoms like twitching, flashing??

I treated him with 2 rounds of prazi. No twitching or flashing.

Eyes look clean too, not cloudy.. Just not sure why he has no reaction to me lol... I could probably pick him up with my hands if he didnt feel the water move.

This

Many freshwater discus develop cataract like symptoms with age. It cause them to miss food. Maybe it might be similar to that

Id try a freshwater dip to make sure there are no flukes, Can't hurt. I do know that when some fish would come in with high ammonia in the bags their eyes would get cloudy and they would be disoriented. some came around over time most didn't make it. If its alive and eating that's a good sign. I had a pyramid butterfly for a long time with only 1 eye.

If he's eating that's a good sign. Is he active at all or does he just lay around on the bottom?

One of my wrasse became blind and he would smell the food and get excited, but the only way I could get him food was a pipette 1/2" from him and squirting a few PE mysis at him.

CoralNerd also has a blind flasher wrasse. Mine perished, his is still kicking but basically wanders around on the sand bed and hides a lot. All things considered his fish was in great health, and had adapted to it's lifestyle.

I have a blind Black-Axle Chromis. He went blind after I had him for about 6 months. Still alive, he has been blind for about 2 months now, that I know of. He started just staying up near one of the top corners, and he started bumping into stuff all the time. I noticed that he was the only fish not reacting to the lights changing, or the flashlight at night.
His eyes look normal, and he is otherwise healthy. I put my hand in the tank and caught him with ease when I was first trying to figure out what was wrong with him. He didn't react to my hand at all. Poor Guy.

I have a legally blind pink tail trigger that I stick feed.

He was the boss of the tank for 2 years, then suddenly disappeared behind the rocks. I looked and looked for any signs of disease or injury and could not find any. I thought someone may have got sick of his bullying and put him in his place and he was just pouting. He stayed fat so he was getting food from behind the rocks.

Then about 6 months later he reappeared out in the open, I noticed he was having a hard time getting food. With him food right in front of him he couldn't see, far away he could jet and catch. I tested his eyesight with hand jestures and such and determined he was legally blind, equally in both eyes. The shape of the color part of his eyes looks a little irregular not symmetrical but they are clear.

I now feed him with a feeding stick, no one bothers him and he seems to thriving otherwise. I guess I'm doing right by him....

With discus the cause of cataracts is pretty clear: in the wild they live in well shaded forest rivers. On top of that the water you find them in has the color of tea. So their eyes are used/adapted to twilight with little to no UV component.
If you put fish like those in clear water under bright lights and possibly even a significant UV component, you are bound to damage their eyes. Cataracts are pretty much predictable in that case.

But the eyes of tropical reef fish are generally adapted to relatively intense light with a significant UV component. Some shallow water fish actually have UV reflecting corneas to protect their eyes from things like cataracts.
Fish that only live in greater depths may however have problems with intense light and especially with UV.

The described cases however don't seem to be from cataracts as in that case the fish could still distinguish between light and dark and possibly even see shadowy images.
Also, cataracts can be easily diagnosed with a visual inspection of the fish's eyes.

Flukes covering the eyes would have a similar effect as cataracts - the fish would see everything very blurry, but could still see shadows and distinguish light from dark.

These cases rather seem to be caused by damage to the retina or the optic nerve.
In most cases once the damage is done it can't be reverted.
Causes may be chemical agents, bacterial infections or even parasites. If both eyes are affected, chemical or bacterial infections are the most likely culprits.
Another option would be damage to the visual cortex. Again, chemicals, bacteria or a tumor would be the most likely culprits.

Most observed cases of total blindness are likely caused by chemicals, especially if encountered soon after acquiring the fish. Either use of cyanide during capture or chemical treatments (overdose or combining incompatible meds) against diseases.
Other suspects may be excessive levels of nitrates, phosphates and organic pollutants. This could be the case if a fish goes blind after several years in the tank. Though these days nitrate and phosphate levels that could be harmful to fish should be rare and confined to fish only systems.

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Good info. I am assuming that fish, like people can go blind due to any number of reasons including environmental, developmental, disease, conditional or natural reasons as well.

In the wild they would be easily picked off by predators, but in our tanks, if they can eat by smell/taste, they can survive for years.

I have lost two wrasse that had failing vision and were finally unable to feed. One was my beloved red head that had been with me for over 7 years. He was always out and about but I noticed that he was getting very thin so I pulled him and placed him in QT. I treated for parasites and fed him a lot. Wasn't long and he had fully recovered so I put him back in the display tank. It wasn't until a couple of months later that he was very thin again and I realized his vision was so bad he couldn't compete with the other fish. Pulled him again and gave him his own 29BC tank and he did very well on his own until his vision got so bad he couldn't feed at all.

Old thread, I know, but I've suspected that my wrasse was recently blinded. I noticed something on his eye a week ago and thought it might be flukes so I fresh water dipped him and went into qt with a prazi med.

After a few days I noticed that he was trying to eat, but seems to miss the food most of the time. He does occasionally get some which is good, but I'm really starting to think he might have been blinded by either the dip or the medicine because when he was in the main tank he was fine.

He doesn't seem to react it any visual stimulus. I doubt he'll go back in to the display tank because my pygmy angel will give him a hard time when the wrasse isn't on his A game.

He swims weird, too. Not like he's unhealthy, just like he's... Well... Blind.

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I recently lost a solaris wrasse that had to be blind. It was a beautiful fish and very hardy. Took a beating at first from my ruby head wrasse but kept eating and getting larger. A few years later it started to get really skinny and it would miss food when striking. This was certainly the reason for it losing weight. Well, it died about two weeks ago. It wasn't skeletal so I'm led to believe it was a combo of blindness and "old age." Guessing it was 6-7 years old. Would expect it to live longer but in captivity you never know how the fish is affected internally. It would have died at least a year sooner in the wild. Would love to get another but adding a wrasse to my tank is probably not going to happen as long as the ruby head is in there.