Bung-eyed Juvenile Scribbled Rabbitfish
I went a-coral shopping today as its my last day of freedom before I start working long hours for a while. I had 'errands' to run which just happened to include two of the local aquariums. I've been keeping my ear to the ground for weeks now looking for a small rabbitfish to help me with the Caulerpa in my display, which I've been manually removing with a siphon and treating with Hydrogen peroxide as well - still working on it :rolleyes
I was at Fishworld Aquarium in Dandenong and on one tank it read Scribble Rabbitfish (injured eye) $25. There was a juvenile with a chewed up tail and injured eye. First of all, I'm so impressed at the shops ethics in how they handled an NQR fish - I wish more LFS were like them. The salesperson also made sure I was aware of the injury.
I told myself that I really should get the healthy one that was in another tank but then I started thinking how perfect my tank is for it to recover in - its not overstocked and is a low stress environment for him. It was a given that this fish pretty much had my name on it as I'm a sucker for a sad story, as long as the odds are good (rescuing wildlife hardens you to reality somewhat). While I was acclimatising him I had a close look at the eye as I may not get another chance to have such a good look. He has full rotational movement so the muscles surrounding it don't appear to be compromised, but I'm as certain as I can be that he has no vision out of it at all - no response to waving my hand close to him on that side. The normal eye has a clear convex 'lens' over it which is completely absent on the injured eye. I can't see any sign of infection or wounds but that doesn't mean an infection isn't brewing. Hopefully he will recover ok. I'm expecting at worst he will die, at best its looking like he will be blind in one eye. He may surprise me and regain his sight once any inflammation goes down, we will 'see'!
I was at Fishworld Aquarium in Dandenong and on one tank it read Scribble Rabbitfish (injured eye) $25. There was a juvenile with a chewed up tail and injured eye. First of all, I'm so impressed at the shops ethics in how they handled an NQR fish - I wish more LFS were like them. The salesperson also made sure I was aware of the injury.
I told myself that I really should get the healthy one that was in another tank but then I started thinking how perfect my tank is for it to recover in - its not overstocked and is a low stress environment for him. It was a given that this fish pretty much had my name on it as I'm a sucker for a sad story, as long as the odds are good (rescuing wildlife hardens you to reality somewhat). While I was acclimatising him I had a close look at the eye as I may not get another chance to have such a good look. He has full rotational movement so the muscles surrounding it don't appear to be compromised, but I'm as certain as I can be that he has no vision out of it at all - no response to waving my hand close to him on that side. The normal eye has a clear convex 'lens' over it which is completely absent on the injured eye. I can't see any sign of infection or wounds but that doesn't mean an infection isn't brewing. Hopefully he will recover ok. I'm expecting at worst he will die, at best its looking like he will be blind in one eye. He may surprise me and regain his sight once any inflammation goes down, we will 'see'!
