[anothermineral]

Folks,

I think my lion has gone blind.

I've had him for ~1 year in a tank all his own. He has been a voracious eater. I've been feeding him krill, clams, and the occasional live feeder fish. H20 parameters are perfect. He shows no signs of physical stress and is one of the best specimens I've ever seen.

On Father's day, he decided to go on a hunger strike. I originally thought he might have lockjaw, as I didn't notice him yawn for several days, however, this was not the case.

Then I realized the following:
The tank is located at the end of a hallway. Any time anyone entered the hallway, the fish would immediately get excited thinking is was going to be fed, and rise to the top of the tank. It always amazed me that he/she could see motion ~15 feet away. This has stopped completely.

The reason I think the fish has gone blind is I've been able to get him to feed, but it is a tiresome job to do it. It involves placing a piece of krill on the end of a skewer and constantly presenting is in front of the fish until its fear level subsides and it decides to lunge forward and eat it. The fish rarely leaves the bottom of the tank and appears to be walking very tentatively with its front fins like we would do if locked in a room without any lights on, sort of feeling his way around the bottom.

The fish can still hear / smell; however it does not respond to any visual stimuli I present it with. The fish's eyes are clear. There doesn't appear to have been any trauma to the fish. As I said above, it's all by itself in the tank.

I've observed the fish at detail for several hours over the last week to try and formulate a different theory, however, it appears that he's blind as a bat. The only other change I've observed is the fish's coloration has deepened substantially, which I feel is due to stress.

Thought I'd share my observations with the group as an FYI and for any comments regarding my blind theory.

-Mineral