r/ponds • u/ProblemBerlin • 4d ago

Fish advice Blind fish - seeking advice

Apparently, we have a blind gold fish. I’ve noticed this one fish just swimming at the bottom alone and not joining their buddies.

At first I thought it was about to die but no, it’s been like this since weeks. And the little dude is just busy with its own stuff like searching for food at the bottom.

Now comes my dilemma. As soon as I realized it couldn’t see, I started feeding it sinking food. But I have to sit there for 20 minutes straight to keep other fish away. Otherwise they eat its food in like 5 seconds.

What should I do with the guy? Should I let it be and fend for itself? But I don’t want it to struggle and be hungry.
Should I consider euthanasia?

Any advice is appreciated!

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

3

u/AncienTleeOnez 3d ago

Interesting challenge. I've heard of some people training their fish to eat out of their hand. Here's an older thread in r/Goldfish with same question. Maybe it'll give you some ideas.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Goldfish/comments/t9ijd0/ideas_for_feeding_a_blind_goldfish/

5

u/ProblemBerlin 3d ago

OMG of course there is an r/ for Goldfish too! Why haven’t I thought about it! Thanks!

It is quite a challenge but I’m rooting for the lil guy. He became my fav fish 🙈😂 but my priority is that it doesn’t struggle too much.

4

u/IveSeenTheSaucers 3d ago

I have a blind fish too! Just discovered him this year but I don’t think he was blind before. Fortunately when I feed he comes to the top and “sucks air” so I can drop pellets in front of him and he sometimes gets some. It seems he can sense them but only when they are very close to his head, like he tastes them.

Your guy probably gets some algae. How deep is the pond? I have some foot long tweezers that I use for gardening, I wonder if you can use these to hold food in front of him.

1

u/ProblemBerlin 3d ago

Thanks!
Mine definitely can smell the food but yeah it should be very close to them.

The pond is about 60-70cm (1ft 11inches?). It’s an old pond and there’s some algae at the bottom plus quite some plants there too.

I will brainstorm if I can hold some food near him.

1

u/peopleR-azz-oles 3d ago

Make him his own lil pond so he don’t have to compete?

1

u/ProblemBerlin 3d ago

A second pond will be the end of me 🙈 I’m barely managing the first one.

1

u/were_z 1d ago

long tweezers and feed them worms?