Cloudy eye for 3 months now.

[H20lover99]

Hello, looking for some advice for my blue electric acara. Fish keeping has not been my friend I had my blue in with my 2 convicts. And they were beating on him and not letting him eat. That's when he got skinny and started to get 1 cloudy eye that's pretty bad. I assumed it was a bacteria infection. I treated the tank twice, 2 different treatments.While I had him in a mesh breeder thing to recoup. That didnt help. Then I did some salt baths with longer time in the mesh breeder with individual feeding times. Didnt help. Now I have him in a 5 gallon tank. Hes eating now. But his eye is still cloudy and he acts blind. Cant see food takes him alot of guessing. It's been like 3 months now otherwise he looks okay. Is this permanent? Please help. Please dont judge me. I know the lack of education and money I dont have is obvious. But I have pushed for all 3 of my fishes as much as i can. Any help is much appreciated.

 

[Colin_T]

Pictures and video of the fish (both sides and front view) and one showing the entire tank with the convicts in?
Upload videos to YouTube, then copy & paste the link here.
If you use a mobile phone to film the fish, hold the phone horizontally (landscape mode) so the footage fills the entire screen and doesn't have black bars on either end.

What are the tank dimensions (length x width x height)?
How long has the tank been set up for?
What is the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH of the water (in numbers)?
What sort of filter is in the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the aquarium?

What do you feed the fish and how often do you feed them?

 

[GaryE]

The eyeball itself may be damaged. I've seen that a few times. The fish can live with it.

The next problem is a fish in a 5 gallon when you you have no money. Ideally, it needs a much larger tank - at least 20 gallons. I would keep a sharp eye out for thrown away tanks, community billboard ones, etc. I ran an aquariums in schools thing and found a few tanks beside the road on garbage day - they almost all held water when tested. The other option would be to see if a store would take the convicts and give their tank to the acara. It doesn't need company, as you've seen, but stores won't take injured fish.

 

[H20lover99]

I get how all that information about my tank might help, but I just want everyones best guess. I clean the convict tank with 2 convicts weekly. I never just do water changes I always get the water out by gravel vacuum. I usually do about 50% water change weekly. I have a well established tank. Now on to the 5 gallon tank. I do spot cleaning daily=small tank. Weekly water changes 25%. Agreeed a bigger tanks is needed but I'm just patting myself on the back for getting him out of the mesh breeder holder I had him in. This eye is either permanently damaged or is there something I'm not doing to help it get better. More meds? More salt baths. I'm just assuming since its been so long hes had it. Hes just blind now.

 

[jaylach]

You MAY get some help from the following link but I must admit to not reading the entire thing and, to be honest I question the actual knowledge of the author. Still something for you to peek at.

Personally I have never had a fish develop this issue but have it myself due to a military injury. I suppose that bacteria could possibly cause a film to form on the eye but the usual cause is a rupture of the 'sack' that holds the eye lens... think of a person with cataracts. But who knows? fish aren't human...

Anyway, here is the article preceded with a quote that makes me question the thing. The problem with the quote is that the actual water does not hold much good bacteria as most is attached to surfaces.

Pro Tip: In filling the isolation tank, you can use as much water as you can spare from your other active tanks (not the tank where your infected fish originated). This ensures that the water is already cycled and contains beneficial bacteria, which is crucial for the fish’s health.

Cloudy Eye Fish Disease: Signs, Causes & Treatment

Noticing your fish’s eyes turning opaque, milky, or cloudy could be alarming and distressing. Although cloudy eye is a common condition for fish, it is

aquariumwhisperer.com

 

[H20lover99]

Thanks I'm gonna give it a read now. I just like have all theses tanks with 1 fish in them it sucks. I dont want to have this dude alone for the rest of his life it's sad and I dont have the patience for it. No body else has tanks like theses lol. There all filled with fish that all magically get along. What's funny is I actually had the 2 convicts separated for awhile to. Ugh

 

[Colin_T]

Need pictures to actually see what is wrong with the eye. Without seeing the fish and how it swims, I am unwilling to guess. It's like going to a doctor and saying "Doc, I have a sore on my leg and it isn't healing". The doctor asks to look at it and you say no. The doctor can't identify the issue if they can't see it.

A picture showing the main tank can also give us an idea of how it's set up and whether anything can be changed in it so the fish can go back in there. However, if the fish is blind, it should not be housed with anything that can pick on it and a pair of convict cichlids will probably kill it.

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Don't give fish salt baths. Every time you chase and catch the fish, you stress it out. Lifting the fish out of water can cause minor scratches and abrasions that can lead to infections. If you want to use salt, add salt to the tank and leave it in there for 2 weeks. The salt will treat the fish and kill anything in the water that might be infecting the fish.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for 2 weeks. If there's no improvement after 1 week, then stop using salt.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket (2 litres/ 1/2 gallon) of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.