Barra Blind?

[fushnique]

50+cm barra shares 6*2*2 tank with 4 big oscars and a 45 cm toga. He 3 yrs old and boss of tank and let everyone know.Ten days ago air pump died overnight and next morning oscars/toga gasping at surface barra sitting on bottom quite distressed. Got the air going and all recovered and started swimming normally,all the others back to normal but barra not bossy anymore, not eating tried all food types, getting spooked by other fish. You can see pupil movement  but won't even chase feeder fish. Could oxygen deprevation have cause blindness due to his size compared to tank mates he did seem to suffer more than others?

[aquaholic99]

When oxygen is low, bigger fish will run out of oxygen before smaller fish  since they have a higher oxygen demand. Different species have different oxygen requirements of course but low oxygen will not cause blindness. Sounds like the Barra got the most stessed/spooked and did the most damage to itself by panicked swimming.

A bit of salt will help heal the scratched eyes and a bit of time needed to restore it's confidence.

[fushnique]

Yeah done the basics with water change after 4-5 days,did all chemical tests within parameters give him some salt every cupla days.No obvious damage with eyes, given regular pimafix/melafix mix they all handle it alright. When the live food went in he put his dorsal up and changed color got close but never hit. It seemed like he was listening, hes starting to lose bit of weight but just see how he goes i guess. Come to think of it i never seen a blind cane at a fish shop. :wink: