Blind Sailfin Molly

[ninjacheesefish]

I picked up this Black Sailfin Molly from the LFS today, and it has no eyes... I picked it for that reason, it was getting bullied and I felt sorry for it
Is there anything I can do in its tank to make it better?

 

[ShinySideUp]

I picked up this Black Sailfin Molly from the LFS today, and it has no eyes... I picked it for that reason, it was getting bullied and I felt sorry for it
Is there anything I can do in its tank to make it better?

Get it a guide dogfish. Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[FishBlast]

I picked up this Black Sailfin Molly from the LFS today, and it has no eyes... I picked it for that reason, it was getting bullied and I felt sorry for it
Is there anything I can do in its tank to make it better?

They can still sense food, so as long as it eats, it should be ok.
Think of the blind tetras, those lose their eyes by default, and still can eat, but they become a bit nippy due to not knowing what they are attacking.
Best for the molly would be to either be kept with peaceful tankmates that cannot be harmed by the molly or just keep it alone.

 

[ninjacheesefish]

If you can find me a guide dogfish I'd love to have one

I've got some blind cave fish in there aswell so I guess he has some friends in there.

The other tankmates are:

More mollies
Cories
Bristlenoses
Volcano Rasboras
Pearl Danio
Columbian Tetras
Blind Cave Tetras
Opaline Gouramis

Are they peaceful ones?

 

[FishBlast]

If you can find me a guide dogfish I'd love to have one

I've got some blind cave fish in there aswell so I guess he has some friends in there.

The other tankmates are:

More mollies
Cories
Bristlenoses
Volcano Rasboras
Pearl Danio
Columbian Tetras
Blind Cave Tetras
Opaline Gouramis

Are they peaceful ones?

Oh man X_X Those won't be easy on the molly (the cave fish)...

 

[ninjacheesefish]

Which ones are good for him? He's still eating okay

 

[FishBlast]

Which ones are good for him? He's still eating okay

I think all on that list are ok fish except for the blind tetras, though i am not so sure about gourami behavior.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

If you can find me a guide dogfish I'd love to have one

I've got some blind cave fish in there aswell so I guess he has some friends in there.

The other tankmates are:

More mollies
Cories
Bristlenoses
Volcano Rasboras
Pearl Danio
Columbian Tetras
Blind Cave Tetras
Opaline Gouramis

Are they peaceful ones?

While I admire your wish to rescue this Molly from the fish store, it needs to be cared for in a manner far beyond "normal" fishkeeping. It cannot be compared to a Blind Cave Tetra, these fish have evolved to use a radar like device to map their environment (and if kept in bright light the fry will retain the eyes they are born with), while this livebearer needs the same sort of care as if I came along and pulled both of your eyeballs out after you had been used to living with sight for decades.

Personally, I would try to keep it with literally a few other Mollies in a 3-foot tank and monitor the situation, to see if it gets a fair share of food and not picked on. In many ways I'd love to see it have a chance to parent some youngsters, but we do not know yet if this blindness was a birth defect or something that happened through aggression or illness.

 

[ninjacheesefish]

Okay, so I need to look after him extra carefully?

Keep him in a tank with other mollies, this could happen. Would an 80 litre tank with other mollies work for him? So, I could have just a molly community in an 80 litre.

Basically I've got a spare 110 litre tank with a dodgey light which the other fish could go in, but it needs setting up and putting in the correct place. So the danios, tetras and gouramis could go in there with other fish, like barbs maybe.

Making sense?

 

[OldMan47]

If your new fish is eating well and seems happy, just let him continue. He would face incredible odds if he wanted to engage in mating activity, but as a single fish you can meet all of his needs by keeping his tank clean and providing him with food that he can find.
On a side note, I had a dog who went blind as a young adult and my other dog did become more or less a seeing eye dog but the other dog took great delight in running toward fence and turning at the last second to watch the blind dog run into the fence. No real harm was done but it let me see just how much that dog understood. He actually figured out that the other dog could not see and decided to use that for his own entertainment.