Blind Goldfish?

[star4]

I picked up a cheap tank today and (with tropicals) was a 5"+ goldfish, well he isnt gold more yellow with a whitish head, I transferred him to my 300l coldwater tank and noticed the poor chap swimming in the roughly same size area as the tank he had just come from (125l) and he kept bumping into the intake strainers? when he actually swam side on to the glass I could see deep inside his eye was pure white, its in both eyes. When I fed them as soon as the others came to the surface to feed the new one started rummaging round in the gravel?? I am almost sure the poor chap is blind, is he going to be ok in the bigger tank?

 

[Truck]

Fish can survive fine without eyes, they have nostrils for smell, and the lateral line for pressure changes, are the eyes cloudy? if so it's probably cataracts.

 

[star4]

Yes the eyes are cloudy, the one looks as if it has suffered trauma at some point as it looks quite deeply scarred, he seems to be happy enough. I was just worried because he had been use to a smaller tank.

 

[Ryefish]

Over time he will learn the lay of the new tank and should get around fine. I imagine he might go a bit confused each time you re-arrange things in your tank and he will have to learn the layout again.

 

[star4]

The blind goldfish seems to be finding his way arround better today, although it never moves far from one the same size as him, he follows the other one round the tank swimming underneath it touching its belly with his nose?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

There is a fish disease called "Cloudy Eye", which is an external bacterial disease which can be induced in fish but stressful conditions or events. Truly blind fish can usually find their way around tanks using their other senses, so the fact that it is not swimming around that well points to me that it is probably more likely to be sick than truly blind.

Have you tested the tanks water quality for ammonia, nitrites & nitrates recently? What other fish do you have in the 300litre tank ?