Blind Betta?

[SleepyRN]

I've had "Sake" for about 8 months. He's been the best Betta out of all I've owned. Best personality, and while he may not be the prettiest, he's always been playful and sits right next to me on the couch. About a month ago I decided to put him in a 6 gal filtered tank. At first he loved it, but the whole time he had trouble finding food. Last night I got another crown tail and decided he would go in the 6 gal and I took Sake out and returned him to his 2 gal unfiltered bowl... next to me on the couch. He was looking very thin, his color had dulled, and now I notice his eyes do not look the same. It's hard to explain without seeing the fish before hand, but they look "half open" and just a very tiny black dot in the middle. They used to be huge, wide and completely dark.

He can't find his food and seems to "sniff" it out before lunging at the surface completely missing it. He still swims around fine and navigates the plants, but when it comes to "catching" food... no bueno. Anyone ever heard of this?

[Jayy]

thats sounds odd I've never of this happening,but thats just me.

[XrAdEr]

Yea thats pretty strange...i doubt its blind tho.

[TheJadeBetta]

What does his eyes look like?

[xxabc]

If it's cloudy it's one thing. If it's "half closed", that might be the angle you're looking at. My bettas look half closed too, or at least they give off that impression. But he has no trouble finding his food.

If it was cloudy, it could be some sort of cataracts, which causes cloudy vision, I think. Cloudy vision --> can't see well --> can't see food. But I wouldn't be suprised if he was blind. Cataracts shouldn't be the only definition of "blind".

But are you really sure he's blind, since he seems to navigate well? Maybe he ... sucks at lunging. I know my red betta is - he'll miss once or twice pretty often. But I know for a fact he's not blind - he still follows my finger when i drag it on the glass (without physically touching the glass).

[SleepyRN]

It seems like he can see broad shapes, like me walking up to the bowl. When it comes to small things, like food, my finger, he doesn't seem to do well. He used to follow my finger and never have a problem getting food. When I say he misses the food, I mean he'll be 0.5'' away from it lunging... not really close at all. He'll do that 5 or 6 times before finally getting closer to the food.

As far as plants, he has always enjoyed swimming through them... so I can't really say he is bumping into them.

His eyes aren't really cloudy, they used to be small black circles, now they are about 90% "flesh colored" (he is orange) and a tinnny black spec. I don't have a great camera and haven't mastered the art of taking pics of fish... so I can't get a pic that you can tell anything from.

[ninjafish]

Oh wow..I was actually wondering this too. I purchased a pure white delta tail the other night, and I noticed his eyes looked slightly cloudy, although I thought it was just his colouration..Now I'm noticing he's having trouble getting his pellets. I know he can see me, because if I put my hand close to him he moves back, but as for "lunging" at his food, he completely misses. :(