Possible causes of blindness in fish?

[jn]

HI all, I just closed down a pond yesterday (at another property) and brought all the fish and plants home. The fish are comets (possibly veiltails) and most are probably between 6-8 years old although some may be older as they were all there before we owned it and were already big then!

Some of them are blind! I think 2 have lost one eye and 2 have lost both eyes. The others are fine. It is possible that cats may be the culprit as the edges of this pond are cat friendly but what else may cause this in fish?

It looks like the eye is actually gone as opposed to just the eye going cloudy and white. Any ideas? The fish are otherwise happy. No flashing, no excess slime, no laboured breathing etc etc.

Any ideas?

[alanmin4304]

It sounds as though they have been damaged on some sharp object---possibly trying to escape from cats.

[Caper]

Way back when one of my goldies went blind, I couldn't find anything on the net about fish/blind. But I agree, since the eyes are gone that it would appear that something or someone (meaning puttytat) injured the eye. My goldfish Sam, never did find out what happened to him. He still has his eyes and they look the same as they always did. I don't remember how long I had him before the blindness came about. The only reason I knew he was blind was when I was feeding them and he obviously could NOT see the food, which he did before!