Oldest pair of Chromis blind. LED cause?

[Oldsalt]

Hello folks,
My oldest pair (bought them together over a year ago) have gone blind. They're bumping into rocks when they smell food, otherwise staying in opposite corners of the tank facing upwards with no response to visual stimulus. I can literally catch them with my hands. There are another 5 Chromis of larger size and more blueish than these 2. Those 5 are fine. Tank is ~340gal (1500 litres with sump). All other life is ok. Water temp steady 26°C Alk 9.1dKh, ph 8.3, Sg1026, calc 450, Mag 1450. There is little to no fighting or bullying going on. Other inhabitants 4" Naso Tang, 5" Foxface Rabbitfish, 7 Demoiselle damsels, A pair of breeding Percula clowns in a large BT, a breeding pair of Banggai Cardinals, and a 6 line wrasse (added last and not bothering anyone). I'm guessing these 2 Chromis will starve given time. It's a 6'x 2.5'x3' tank with coral and the latest 2019 dsuny lights on mid 50% 450blues, low 15% 12k white. Not using lunar. The 420 etc (ch 4) is set at 10% Max. I've been seeing a lot about others who have blind Chromis. I'm at a loss.

 

[Peach02]

I don't think led could send any fish blind and you don't have them running extremely high ether. It could be a age thing or a illness but then your other chromis would have it.

 

[Katrina71]

@Scurvy has a blind clown. He may be able to give you tips about feeding.

 

[AZMSGT]

Cheap LED lights... yep, could be at fault. Who knows what they use for light spectrum LEDs.

 

[Oldsalt]

Stated spectrums and actual would need to be measured. But all my corals are growing like mad. Maybe, just maybe there are hot spots because it's winter here in Perth Western Australia and glass lids have been on to reduce evaporation and reduce heater costs. Electric here does not come cheaply. Topping up with RODI costs too. I can just afford to run this huge tank but I draw the line at thousands for lights. Maybe time to shut down the system, however wouldn't all fish be going blind? I don't know. I have lots to think about. I'm getting too old anyway. Thanks

 

[mta_morrow]

I have 1 chromis and it is blind. Happened over the past several months.

When I feed the tank I always squirt food his way. He usually finds some.

I think the other fish know cause they come down to the front right corner where he stays and they hang with him. Especially my tailspot blenny. What a good little fish!

 

[Oldsalt]

Only one was blind a few days ago. Today his partner joined him. They are a smaller and more green type of Chromis that I used as 1st additions after cycling around 18 months ago. Who knows how old they were. If I target feed they will eat. I feel awful watching them live like this. It's not fair. I haven't had a single death due to illness. Only lost a Blenny to a pistol shrimp and I found it being eaten by a gorilla crab. That was maybe 10 months ago and I got the pistol and gorilla out. The only thing that changed is the addition of the sliding glass lids on tracks above the tank. They allow air but they get salty and that's a problem for me with recent spinal surgery. I have to climb up a ladder to get there. It's nearly 7 feet to the top of this tank. I'm 6'. Spring is right around the corner. This morning was cold at 6°C (43°F) but it warmed to 20 this afternoon. We're going to have days of 30 (nearly 90 D) real soon. The lids will be off then and the cooling system put back on. I DIY'd 4 noiseless PC fans and wired them to a temp probe/power relay to kick in at 27°C - it worked extremely well last summer which was a scorcher, keeping the tank below 28°C consistently with the caveat of lots of water evaporation. A chiller would need to be huge for 1500litres and costs to run prohibitive on a pension. I manage to sell Banggai babies regularly and that helps. So 2 blind Chromis is what it is. No other fish picking on them. They aren't skinny yet. Here's the tank and the cooling system I made...

 

[Scurvy]

Its definitely a bummer seeing them struggle. As mentioned I have a blind clown but he’s in a Biocube so very easy to isolate and feed. Mine may get lucky with some pellets or frozen floating on the surface but over time I noticed him declining so I started putting him a cup 3 or 4 times per week for an all he can buffet of frozen and pellets. I cant say what caused it but I found him one day with what looked like pop eye. Medicated his food for 10 days which stopped the pop eye or whatever it was but left him blind.