Posted on 01/09/2015 5:57:53 PM PST by smokingfrog
A one-eyed copper rockfish at the Vancouver Aquarium is now sporting a glass eye to prevent it from being bullied by other fish.
Dr. Lesanna Lahner of the Seattle Aquarium fitted the aging rockfish with a bright yellow taxidermy eye to help protect it from being picked on by other fish that viewed its empty eye socket as a sign of weakness.
Its doing well, Lahner told Metro. Since its had the prosthetic eye, its been out and about and acting more like a normal rock fish.
Lahner, who has been fine-tuning the procedure for the past few years, lent her expertise to vets at the Vancouver Aquarium last month, performing the procedure on a one-eyed copper rockfish that had developed cataracts. An aging yellowtail rockfish that was on display at the airport also received a prosthetic eye.
It was the first time the procedure had been performed at the Vancouver Aquarium, she said.
During the surgery, the fish was put under anesthesia while vets popped the prosthetic into the socket and secured it to bone using fishing line and titanium clips.
For reasons not fully understood, captive rockfish are prone to eye disease.
(Excerpt) Read more at metronews.ca ...
Blind fish? Dam!
Glad to hear it.
Thank goodness we have that taken care of.
A few trillion more and we can muster an indignant riposte to Al Qaeda.
Aw, cmon, those fish doctors weren’t just doing this for the halibut!
Thought this was another Harry Reid update.
Canada Ping!
Me too. But then Harry Reid is a one-eyed bully.
Too bad they didn’t fit it with a fish-eye camera! A video display for the viewing public outside the tank would have been fascinating.
Good thing he is in the tank. Being in open waters it might all be wasted effort...ending up on the end of a hook.
Mmmm...rockfish! The real chicken of the sea.
Fake eye? Why waste time when a new law banning bullying fish would be more effective?
Good thing we are trying to solve really important things.
Don’t anthropomorphize? fish. They hate that.
I decided to test your statement, by asking my goldfish if he wanted to be anthropomorphized. Instead of answering, he just looked at me with a coy expression.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.