I have a very cute little ranchu in my 250 litre tank along with two ryukins, 1 pearlscale, a larger black ranchu and a recent addition of a large orange oranda.

On the day I introduced this large orange oranda from the quarantine tank the fish all seemed a little freaked out. I turned the lights out to let them calm down and left them till the next morning.

The next morning I found my poor little Mango the ranchu swimming around with only one eye! The little fella seemed fine, maybe a little dazed, but with an eye totally gone. It has to have been sucked out as there is no sign of any damage to the fish or to its eye socket. I'm sure the new oranda must have been trying to give him a little peck and got him in the wrong spot.

Anyway, this was a couple of days ago and the injured fish actually seems ok. He's feeding fine and there is no sign of fungus or infection.

I just wanted to hear from anyone who has had a similar experience and get some advice on any special treatment I should be giving the little guy.

Thanks all


btw - all tank readings are 0 or almost. The tank runs with two external canisters set up with a good mix of media and everything hs been running for about a year. Minimum 20% water changes every week etc. Plenty of aeration too. No water quality issues and plenty of melafix added so far.

I can really sympathise with you. Exactly the same thing happened to me years ago. And to a little ranchu as well! It was terrible and I was distraught. He was such a nice little fish.

Nothing you can do about it now. It should heal okay and he willl learn to live quite happily with just one eye.

Personally, I'd get rid of the oranda straight away in case he does it again and your little ranchu ends up losing the other eye. Or if you don't want to do that, at least separate them until the ranchu becomes big enough that the oranda doesn't confuse his remaining eye for food any more (or if it does, the ranchu will be big enough that his eye will be strong enough to withstand any 'oranda-suction'.

It's really not wise to put tiny fish with eyes obviously darker to the rest of their bodies in with much larger fish. It's a lesson both I and now yourself have learned the hard way! I only got away with doing it with my teeny tiny lionhead baby recently because he was all black and so his eyes didn't stand out.