Any ideas?

[Barbara_nicole]

So today the s/o and I went to a few petstores and I saw an adult male veiled and his eye turrets were super sunken in.. I wasn't going to buy him, but I was just curious, is this a health issue or a vitamin deficiency, or maybe it was an older chameleon and it's similar to horses where that shows age? I'm not sure, I've never seen that on another chameleon.. Anyone seen this or have any ideas?
Thanks in advance!

 

[RJChamers]

If I remember what these great members info, I think dehydration is one of the main problems with that problem.

 

[kinyonga]

Unfortunately there can be a number of reasons for the chameleon to be like that. Hard to tell without more information and photos.

 

[Barbara_nicole]

Ahh yeah, if he was mine I would offer more, but honestly I am not sure.. It just kinda freaked me out I was like ahh! I don't want that to happen to my Yoshi.. Like his eye turret was completely inside his head, it was pretty freaky..

 

[kinyonga]

Did you talk to the store manager?

 

[Barbara_nicole]

Honestly they didn't know anything! They sold us a fish that after researching it I'm 99% certain is a bullhead and we're going to have to release it when it gets bigger.. She was trying to google it on her phone and said it was some other kind of catfish that 'wouldn't get big'. IDK it was super overcrowded petstore there were so many people in there that we didn't really get a chance to talk to them about anything else. His cage looked all right, a larger reptibreeze if I had to guess with some vines and a perch.. I know mine has much better digs but he's spoiled as hell lol I was thinking about going back in a few weeks if he's still there and looking that way I will ask, but it's a few hours away from me..

 

[kinyonga]

I'm sure it won't be there in a few weeks.

BTW...don't release a fish into an area it didn't come from. It can wipe out whatever fish and maybe other critters that live there by carrying bacteria or disease from wherever it came from originally.

 

[Barbara_nicole]

I understand this. That's called an invasive species....

 

[kinyonga]

So where were you going to release it to then??

 

[Darthroastcoffee]

Invasive species is I think a foreign species that isn’t found in that area or of some sort.. I believe @kinyonga was just trying to say it could have pathogens or diseases or anything unnatural to the environment you were releasing them into..

 

[davidjames]

Even if the fish species is found in your area there could be genetic consequence. Most fish species can be found in a wide variety of locations which are often isolated from each other. Overtime, slight genetic differences may become favoured in a certain environment, as the fish which are more adept for survival in their environment tend to produce more surviving offspring. So even if the fish species is found locally, an introduced fish may be closely related, but different (a sub-species). The introduction of a foreign sub-species into your local ecosystem may ultimately affect its structure and function. Breeding with the local populations may alter their fitness and local population dynamics. In turn, this will affect predator and prey abundances, and so on down the food chain. A small change may have great consequence! Ecosystems can be very sensitive.

Where I am from, we are losing our native painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) due to genetic hybridization (interbreeding) with the red-eared slider turtle. Red-eared slider turtles are commonly kept as pets, and have been released into the wild when the owners decide they can no longer care for them. The ultimate consequences to the ecosystem are unknown as of yet, though our local turtle population is red-listed (endangered).