One eyed willy!

As many of you are aware I just went through a battle with the dreaded ich and lost a few of my fish. Thankfully all worked out ok. There is one thing that's really bizarre, as I wrote in the other thread one of my gouramis lost its eye before having to be euthanized. Well, its happened again. One eyed willy is back. My large healthy gourami has lost his eye and has a gaping hole in his head. Everything else with him seems to be fine, he is eating and swimming around fine. He just has a tendency to bump into things and isn't very nice to look at. Is this a common thing with these fish? He started out with a cloudy eye and it peeled off then fell out. Could this be a side effect of the ich? or something else? I have a small leporinus in the tank and someone told me that they are sometimes referred to as eye eaters, I have never seen the leporinus exhibit any kind of aggression, but who knows what goes on when the lights go out. Has anyone had any experience with anything like this? I was shocked when the first one lost his eye, but to have it happen a second time is a little bizarre. Thanks.

I had an angel fish that had gotten into a fight when it was really small, and lost an eye.

It made out ok for a long time.

I'm interested to see if any others have any ideas.

I've never heard of a leporinus...

Keep us posted.

Good Luck!

Leporinus faciatus, very cool looking fish.

WOW!!!

Super cool looking fish!!!

I was in a fish store the other day and i seen a yellow tang with one eye.It was pretty depressing.

That's pretty sad that it was in a fish store... For Sale?

I wouldn't have sold mine... Not cool...

That fish is an aggressive fin nipper, and from the looks of things, he's been hard at work. Many fish are predators, and predators like to prey on the sick and injured. The gourami fits both categories; maybe you should think about euthanizing him. Unpleasant as that is, it seems better than the other option. When the crisis is over, I strongly recommend that you research the habits and requirements of any fish you put into an aquarium. Many varities change as they mature; none of them can change the environment you place them in. Google and other search engines will lead you to detailed information about most species of aquarium fish. Speaking as someone who already made most all of the newbie mistakes in the book, I wish computer search engines would have been available in the 1950s. Of course, I may have ignored the resource anyhow. After multiple disasters, it became apparent that the cheap and easy fish are a good place to start.

Sorry if that sounded too much like a lecture.

I have removed the bigger leporinus from the tank and returned him to the pet store a while back and I am glad to say that everything has improved. He was definitely the culprit, since he is gone the kissing fish has started to grow his fins back. I am really glad I didn't euthanize him because he seems to be getting back to his normal self. Instead of just floating on the bottom or at the surface he is swimming around the tank and taking turns chasing the other gourami around. His color looks much better, he doesn't look faded white anymore. He actively goes after the food at feeding time and almost seems playful again. His eye has started to grow over and while it still looks pretty gross it definitely looks a lot better than it did. I am really glad he made it since he is the oldest fish we have, seems like he has been in there forever. Thanks everyone for your help and advice. The other leporinus is still in there but he is no where near as aggressive as the other one so I will just keep a close eye on him from now on.

Dirtyjerzee99 wrote:

Leporinus faciatus, very cool looking fish.

Killer looking fish!