He's blind as a bat...

[BettaMomma]

Here we go...
Pics of little Louis. (Thanks eudie for the great name suggestion!)

He looks somewhat demonic in this picture...

He discovered the heater here...

Here he was floating in his bag before I put him into his home:

and some more of him in the tank:

AND... here is his tank:
I pulled over half the hornwort out of it because he was constantly bumping into it and getting frustrated:

He's now up to a nice warm tropical 76 degrees.
I think he likes his new home

 

[Raechal]

My mom said you should name him Mr. Magoo. Cute boy, I am sure he LOVES his new home and his new mommy.

 

[BettaMomma]

Mr. Magoo.
LOL

That would have been awesome. heh

OH - and fyi, I am working him up to about 80 degrees, slowly tho - so he won't be permanently at the 76 degrees.
I got a new heater for the 10G tank last night, transferred the 25W heater to Louis' tank and put the new 50W one on the split 10G.

 

[SRC]

I agree, you keep them at work so they should be a work related expense . lol

That's cool that you got him...have you tried any of what I sent you...that could quite possibly help himout as well...never know. That stuff is awesome are curing most anything.

lol...on a totally unrelated note....

My son thinks it is so funny how I have so many fish...that don't live together. He is constantly in watching me do stuff with them. So when I was laughing at the "betta bus" picture he came over to see. He knows I can draw and stuff and has been pestering me for a week or so now to make one myself.so here it is. ALthough, it's not fancy like the other one...with fins and stuff...but just a simple one (to get him off my back lol).

 

[BettaMomma]

SWEEEEEEEET!
I love it!!!
I think we're going to include a page on our betta rescue site about the betta bus. What everyone envisions it to look like.

I have not tried the almond leaf - but I had decided that was going to be a weekend project for me to get it going this weekend. I was going to get it into the 10G tank with Harvey in. He's got all sorts of issues that I can't seem to clear up no matter what I do. And then I was going to get it into Archie's tank too - he's pretty messed up right now, just cuz since he's still in his smaller tank I can't regulate his temp. So.... I might as well just get Louis into some of it too.

I wonder how the world this happened to him.
It looks like the center parts of his eyes (inside) just never developed or something.
there's not a thing wrong with him otherwise (besides that tiny white spot by his eye, but I think that's from him feeling his way around).

The part that I find the most curious to me is if you look at this picture, for instance...

you can see he is using his ventrals for "arms"... it's the oddest thing I've ever seen. he rests on them like a person does when they lay on the floor on their stomach and uses their arms to hold themselves up.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Try feeding him with a pair of tweezers. Mines not blind, but when I try to feed him he sometimes acts like it ( ). Try something like bloodworms, they're easier for him to get off the tweezers. He's very cute though.

 

[eudielynn]

He's so beautiful!!!! Once he is used to his surroundings I am sure he will be fine. He just needs time to feel comfortable and memorize where everything is in his tank.

I think you're right about his eyes just not fully developing properly. It can happen to fish just as easily as it can happen to people. As far as him feeling with his ventrals, I have three gouramis and they all use them to "feel" with. They use them on the other fish, tank walls, gravel, etc. And they are fully sighted, so apparently Louis has learned to compensate for his blindness by utilizing his ventrals to check things out.

I would definately keep tank decorations to a minimum for him, and once he is comfortable, I would not change things around on him if at all possible. (You have probably already thought about this, you're such a good momma.)

Keep us updated on him. I will be leaving soon for the weekend, but I will be looking for your posts on him first thing Monday!!

 

[Kierana]

I love his colors!

In the first picture it's like he's saying "I can't see you - - -but I know that you're there!"

 

[red_fish_blue_fish]

I love him, he is so adorable...for some reason i thought he would be white...which is why I suggested the name casper...lol. I like how he walks on his fins...very interesting.

 

[Haiku]

OMG what a cutie! I love him

 

[Kiarra]

He is probably using those ventrals as a reference. "Okay...it's THAT far to whatever it is below me..."

 

[BettaMomma]

I think he is doing that - but he also uses them when he stops to rest on the bottom - most bettas I have lay their bellies down on whatever it is they're laying on. He puts his ventrals down there and sort of stands on them. It's so odd, it's what drew my attention to him at first, then I noticed the eyes..

I can't wait to go home today and see him again

 

[Kara101584]

Wow , he is beautiful!!

 

[Joby]

He's gorgeous

I hope he settles in well

 

[Panther]

I remember buying a blue gourami once because I saw that he didn't have an eye; it wasn't like he had gotten popeye or something, it just looked like some wierd birth defect. Well, I knew nobody was probably going to want to get an eyeless gourami (he was kinda creepy-looking) so I just had to get him...

As for Louis, he really is a cutie!! It's so awesome how he has learned to compensate for his sight by using touch and sound. I'm so glad you got him!!