Half-blind fish gets new eye

Half-blind fish gets new eye
Half-blind fish fitted with fake eye at Vancouver Aquarium
Adapted from CBC News by Nancy Carson
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vancouver-aquarium-rockfish

A copper rockfish like this one was bullied by other fish.
Photo by Vlad Karpinskiy/CC, Flickr

A copper rockfish lives
at the Vancouver Aquarium.
The fish is getting older.
One of its eyes is blind.
It looks weak and sick.

Underwater bullying
The other fish attack it.
Dr. Martin Haulena is the head vet
at the Vancouver Aquarium.
He wants the other fish
to stop hurting the rockfish.

Maybe he can fool
the other fish.
He can give the rockfish
a new eye.
This new eye cannot see.
But the eye looks real.

A new eye
Dr. Haulena is helped by Seattle Aquarium’s head vet.
Her name is Dr. Lesanna Lahner.
The two doctors put the old rockfish to sleep.

They remove the blind eye.
Then they attach a fake eye
in the same spot.
With thread and metal clips,
they attach it to the fish’s head.

First of its kind
This was the first time
that this surgery was done
at the Vancouver Aquarium.

Another rockfish
had the same surgery.
This yellowtail rockfish will return
to an exhibit
at the Vancouver International Airport.

Before the surgery, the rockfish
was “hiding at the bottom” of the tank, says Dr. Lahner.
With its new eye, the fish seems much happier.

Caring for fish
“Some people don’t realize
how much effort we give fish,” Dr. Hualena said.

A yellowtail rockfish like this one also had the operation. Photo by jmandecki/CC, Flickr

A yellowtail rockfish like this one also had the operation.
Photo by jmandecki/CC, Flickr

Link:
Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park: www.vanaqua.org