I hope he doesn't lose his eye

[Synirr]

As some of you may remember, my oscar has a senegal bichir named Eligos for a tankmate. Lately Eligos has become more obviously nocturnal than he was in his younger days, and spends most of his daylight hours in his cave, so I don't see him often... well today he came out to eat at feeding time, and I was horrified by what I saw!!!! He has a huge red cut on his face that looks infected, and his eye on the side with the cut has a white film over it!!
It looks like maybe something spooked him and he ran into one of the rocks in the tank and cut himself
I feel like a bad mom for not noticing this sooner, but I just assumed he was okay... he has been put in the hospital tank and is receiving treatment. I really really hope he doesn't lose his eye

 

[BettaMomma]

Sorry to hear of your story.
You are a great momma - you already have him in the tank.
Keep us posted on his progress.

 

[Mariah]

Oh no! I dont have any advice though... Im sending good wishes your way

 

[Synirr]

Well, it looks a little better today... less inflamed, but still horrible. I'm sure he'll be blind in that eye, even if he doesn't lose it completely. At least his eyesight wasn't so good to begin with, so it doesn't matter as much *lol*

 

[Synirr]

The fog is finally starting to clear from his eye region, and good news... the eye is still there!! I don't know whether or not he can see out of it, but at least he isn't a cyclops

 

[BettaMomma]

Yay!!!
That's excellent news

 

[Dorkhedeos]

test his eye out. if it usually responds to your hands moving around, try moving your hand really quickly when that eye is facing you

 

[Synirr]

test his eye out. if it usually responds to your hands moving around, try moving your hand really quickly when that eye is facing you

He doesn't usually respond to me anyway, so I doubt that test will help, lol. He's practically blind as a bat... are most senegal bichirs like this, or is mine just defective? He has never acted like he can see very well
He responds to the movement of ghost shrimp whenever I feed him those, but unless they move he acts like he can't see them at all.

 

[Dwarfs]

Bichirs don't see very well naturally, and mainly use their sense of smell to find food

 

[Synirr]

Bichirs don't see very well naturally, and mainly use their sense of smell to find food

That's what I thought, but was just making sure. I knew they hunted by scent... I just wasn't sure if they were supposed to be legally blind or not

 

[GSD]

i hope he gets better soon!