Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Blind Bass?

Does anyone have any experience with Largemouth bass that have gone blind.

Let me set it up a little. I was seining a pond for a client in Moore, OK. He has an acre and ahalf of water and had stocked too many grass carp. While seining the pond to remove grass carp I, like any good Biologist took a look at the rest of his fish.

About 75% of his bass were either blind in one or both eyes. Eyes appeared to have a milky white film over the outside. It was obviuos that these fish were not near as healthy as they should be, as they were unable to find food effeicently.

I was wondering if anyone else had any experience with this, and what theories you might have about it.

Chad, sounds possible like some sort of parasite or disease, or possibley fishing related injuries. I once wrote college term paper on perception and predation in LMB. Some of the anectdotal stories I came across at that time were that LMB can still be a decent predator if they go blind, the lateral line is that good at being able to compensate for loss of eyesite. Hopefully someone has some ideas on what might be the cause of milky eyes in the LMB you observed.

Could it be one of these?
http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/fish_diseases/eyes.html

I think that blind bass eventually become almost black in color when they are fully blind.

One summer, I had an approx. 17" long LMB that would just suspend in one spot about 3' down in 8' of water.

You could drop a shiner right in front of him with no response.

After posting on the forum here, it was suggested that the bass may be blind.

I have no idea but am curious. Were the bass of all sizes including immature ones? I guess I'm asking about the size ranges of the afflicted and non afflicted fish. Was it only bass or were BG and other sunfish also affected?

Only bass were effected. He had drained the pond in order to make seining more effective. and we sampled several thousands of bluegills, none of which appeared to be effected by blindness.

Sunil I read through some old posts about this but some information was inconclusive. I can see that bass in a normal pond might become darker in color because of light preception, these bass were opposite. Most bass were "bleached out". I think a lot of this is due to the fact that his pond was very muddy, do to too many grass carp in his pond.

Dave Bass were in different size classes, there were no bass over 3.5 pounds, most bass effected were in the 1-2 pound range. Very few immature bass were sampled. Those that were, were not effected.

Shorty I will agree with you about lateral line being a great way of componsating for blindness however given amout of baitfish sampled and condition of bass I assume that blind bass were having a more difficult time finding food.

Also, I asked Bob about this topic and got what I believe to be the answer I was curious about other theories.

Chad - this could possibly be a fungus infection, were the gills also light colored instead of the normal bright red?

I did a short google search, sometimes the stress of handling/transporting can lead to a temporary whitish color in the eyes. However I suspect a fungal or bacterial infection since the LMB do not seem to be eating.