African fish question... is this normal??? huge eyes

[Magnum Man]

so my blue and gold African tetras have matured, and I noticed tonight, that their eyes have gotten much bigger... is this normal???

 

[Magnum Man]

female blue and gold, next to a blood cap...

 

[Colin_T]

Bit hard to tell due to blurry picture but if both eyes are cloudy and have swollen up overnight, the fish has an infection in the skull or brain and it is putting pressure on the eyeballs and pushing them out. If the fish is still eating normally then it might survive. Clean water, clean substrate, clean filters all contribute to helping the fish recover. Infection in the brain can be from protozoan, bacterial or viral and it's impossible to tell which pathogen is causing the problem, so treating is a hit and miss affaire. I try to clean tank conditions us (big water change gravel clean substrate, clean the filter) and see what happens.

If only one eye is cloudy or swollen, then is probably injured and should recover in a few days if the water and tank is clean.

 

[GaryE]

Are they bugging out? If so, an infection, and as usual @Colin_T is dead on. But if they appear larger and healthy, it's an ecological message that they come from reduced light - tannin stained shaded streams. Sometimes we just suddenly see something in our fish we somehow don't notice for a while.

 

[Magnum Man]

they're eyes don't appear cloudy, and in fact appear to be gathering more light, than the tank mates, everyone else's eyes look normal, maybe it was the light, or lack there of, as it was almost dark, that made me notice... there is a male and female of this species and both appear similar...

 

[Magnum Man]

male in better light, this morning... maybe their light gather ability makes the eyes look larger in low light, as they're eyes don't look as big, in better light...

 

[GaryE]

It's probably a trick of light fooling your eyes.

I see P. auriantacus, a fish I'm told (by fishers) is collected in blackwater streams - you'd expect the eyes to adjust to darker or brighter conditions.

 

[Innesfan]

Looks perfectly normal to me.

 

[Rusty_Shackleford]

Probably an optical illusion. Now if they start looking like Marty Feldman eyes, you've got trouble.