Blind catfish?

[doomiedee]

Today I was in the lfs and saw that they have a 20" eyeless tsn. It got me thinking how long could a catfish live without sight? Obviously this fish had to be like this for a while as the wounds were healed.

 

[mr.bigglesworth]

As long as the fish is healthy and not starving it shouldn't make any difference blind or sighted.

Of course if you want to be top notch accurate and start counting seconds and milliseconds on the lifespan you could maybe subtract 5 minutes of the total life span because of the temporary sky high stress levels from getting both eyes taken out. Assuming it wasn't born without eyes.

 

[lix.ma14]

I think catfish rely on their sense of feel alot more than their sense of sight to live.

 

[squidyboy0]

Wow, this is the first post of done for 3+ months. The thing is, catfish rely on smell more than sight, so their life would not be changed greatly by this loss of sight. It would probably live a perfectly normal life.


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[Glasman]

I used to rescue fish that were missing a or both eyes, and 99.9% of the time, they never seemed to notice that they were missing anything. Its quite amazing the way that the other senses take charge when they need to.

 

[necrocanis]

eyeless catfish are fairly common in the hobby and probably in the wild as well. i've had at least 1 without any eyes, and two others with only one eye. Some were taken by cichlids and others were just that way when I bought them very small so assumed they were born like that. Never seemed to bother them in the slightest. Actually seemed to react to food in the water faster than the ones with eyes and better eaters as well.

 

[TankDempsey]

Now if you had, for instance, a blind sight predator like a pbass or gar, they would have some troubles

 

[probassfisher010]

Most catfish are nocturnal, or prefer dark water. They rely on their "whiskers" for finding food, and not their eyes... Some predatory catfish such as piraiba may be affected more.


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[squidyboy0]

Most catfish are nocturnal, or prefer dark water. They rely on their "whiskers" for finding food, and not their eyes... Some predatory catfish such as piraiba may be affected more.


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I actually disagree, the piraiba relies more on smell than eye sight. Their eyes are a whole lot smaller in ratio compared to a tsn.


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[probassfisher010]

Good point, any catfish you can think of that would be affected by loss of eyesight?


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