New hobby

[twentyleagues]

Wow both eyes huh? Looks like they are just gone?

 

[MooseTheWizard]

Wow both eyes huh? Looks like they are just gone?

They were definitely nipped out by something quite awhile ago. There's no injuries remaining, but there's deep sockets. IME when a fish is born without an eye its a much shallower recess.

It looks really freaky, especially as she's coming out of the bacopa. Very prehistoric and predatory looking without the eyes.

 

[jaws7777]

That's good and bad news! It was on sale for $40 CAD in a tank of 'assorted polypterus' that was filled with albino and normal senegals. I had seen it about a week ago and it wasn't really doing well, was crammed under some wood, and I opted not to buy it as I thought it was dead/dying. I saw it again just yesterday and noticed it swimming about, but it had no eyes. I originally thought it was a teugelsi. Bit of a polypterus noob here, I have only ever seen sens, albino sens, teugelsi, and ornates in person.

Asked the guy if he would give me a discount for it being blind, and he said he would give it to me for half price, $20 CAD. So I got a weeksii at 6.5" for $20. No eyes is nbd, I think it makes her look pretty spooky and she still eats and performs normally. Also hand feeds very easily due to not being able to see me.

So, $20 for a weeksii. Good deal?

It's only bad news as my largest tank is a 125 gallon 6'x18". Looks like I'll need to nab her a stock pond once she's a big girl.

I was looking at the pic after my 1st reply and thought i was seeing things... thsts pretty cool that you took it in anyway. Weeksii dont grow fast ...actually on the slow side so you should be fine for a loooooong time. 20 bucks is a great deal for a fish you could have for many yrs butl relative to availability in the area. Where i live it would probably be anywhere from 80 to 100+.

Polys have crappy eye sight to begine with so with decent care it should still flourish

 

[MooseTheWizard]

I was looking at the pic after my 1st reply and thought i was seeing things... thsts pretty cool that you took it in anyway. Weeksii dont grow fast ...actually on the slow side so you should be fine for a loooooong time. 20 bucks is a great deal for a fish you could have for many yrs butl relative to availability in the area. Where i live it would probably be anywhere from 80 to 100+.

Polys have crappy eye sight to begine with so with decent care it should still flourish

Yea I have a Striped Raphael Catfish with no eyes either. It was my first 'monster' and it got me into the hobby big time. I'm from Ontario Canada so availability here for most fish is pretty poor, especially Polys.

And yea even my polys with eyes have to sniff assorted things to determine what is and what isn't food.

 

[jaws7777]

I wonder how it will settle in. Insaw a pbb without eyes on fb and it was jet black. The thought was that the blindness somehow affected its ability to blend in wirh its surroundings

 

[jaws7777]

How long have you had the raph for ?

 

[MooseTheWizard]

How long have you had the raph for ?

I don't have the exact date, but I'd say about 7-8 months now.

 

[thefredpit]

I was looking at the pic after my 1st reply and thought i was seeing things... thsts pretty cool that you took it in anyway. Weeksii dont grow fast ...actually on the slow side so you should be fine for a loooooong time. 20 bucks is a great deal for a fish you could have for many yrs butl relative to availability in the area. Where i live it would probably be anywhere from 80 to 100+.

Polys have crappy eye sight to begine with so with decent care it should still flourish

yeah they are 60-80 here

 

[MooseTheWizard]

Figured I would post a little update. I picked up three more rope fish today, bringing my total count to 5. My end goal is to breed these fish, but all reports I see involve fish around the 10yr old mark so I want to begin growing them out now.

The teugelsi pair and delhezi are all growing well. Teugs are about 5" now and about as thick as a typical ropefish is. Hard to snap photos of them as they're in an extremely heavily planted 36g grow out system.

Here's a pic of one of my new ropes.

 

[Burbotman]

From a one weeksii owner to another that is a great pic up