Clarkii going blind

[Portsmouth Reef]

I have just been on the Clownfish forum, mentioning that I have a female Clarkii that has spent 3 weeks in my Devils Finger and not eaten any food I have put in. The last 2 days the fish has been at the front of the glass, appearing to be eating pods. However the fish has bumped into a piece of Coral, and into a rock. I suggested that its eyesight didnt look good, and had a post back to say that Clarkiis have been known to have gone blind. has anyone else experienced this?

[toonces]

i had a several fish go blind in a tank i used to have.

i think it was either a nutritional deficiency or metal in the water. it was more than one fish.

[Portsmouth Reef]

What happened to them?

[toonces]

unfortunately, they all died.

i had two fish that both went blind over the course of 18 months in the same tank. one was a green chromis. the other was a blue fiji devil damsel.

this was when i was in iceland, and i built the reef from locally collected lava rocks. i'm not sure if it was the rocks or not, because i had other fish that did fine.

i was feeding the tank fairly heavily with that sweetwater zooplankton, and i think it may have been too protein rich of a diet. i seem to remember reading that fish can get nutritional deficiencies if they don't get enough algae, or too much protein, and this can lead to blindness.

it's tough to say. i guess the point was just to let you know that i have seen fish go blind before.

[toonces]

i found the link for the chromis that went blind.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...ighlight=blind

[Portsmouth Reef]

Hi toonces

Thanks for that . i appreciate it. I'll try putting a Sera nip on the glass where he hangs out at the bottom. He may not be fully blind, but I reckon he could be getting that way. Until I got on to Reef Central, I had no idea that fish could go blind.It just shows you with Reefkeeping that when you think you are beginning to get a handle on things, and building your knowledge, there are always things cropping up that catch you out.