Eye-Eating Zombie Fish?

[Maine_Fish]

Just kidding...I don't really have zombie fish. At least I hope not.

I maintain a 220 gallon goldfish tank for my employer. It is occupied by about a dozen fancy goldfish and 8 dojo loaches.

Last Friday, I was informed we had a dead goldfish stuck on a filter intake. While removing it, I noticed it was one of the telescope eye goldfish, and that one of its eyes were missing. I just figured that its tank mates picked his eye out after his demise.

The next day, I stopped by the office, and noticed another telescope eye was swimming around with BOTH eyes missing. I promptly euthanized the poor guy.

Any ideas what might be going on?

[emc7]

There are a few fish called "eye-biter", but for good reason they aren't commonly kept in the hobby. Those bubble eye sacks can rupture if the fish hits something sharp. Once something is dangling, other fish will nibble it.

[hXcChic22]

Are your loaches being fed enough (and enough of the proper diet)? They are voracious eaters, and while I wouldn't say they are aggressive, they do tend to nibble on everything that happens to get in their way.

[phlyergirl]

I've heard of goldfish plucking each others eyes out before. Whoever is doing it will probably do it again. But like em7 said, if you have telescope eyed fish, make sure there's nothing sharp in the tank they can injure themselves on.

On a side note, I have seen friends' fish live long happy lives with no eyes, so no need to euthanize if it happens again.