Pearl has a cloudy eye.

[Ldy-Icedragon]

My pearl gourami named Handsome seems to have 1 coudy eye and 1 clear eye. Should I treat the entire tank or move him to a quarenteen tank? I'd hate to put him through all that for nothing serious (he hates being netted). No one else has a hint of cloudy eye but him, any suggestions?

P.S. I just had to post a pic, he's my fav fish ever

(if you look close his dot looks like a heart, it looks even more like one on his other side)

 

[sylvia]

Nice fish Pearls are my favourite as well

You should begin by checking your ammonia, nitrIte and nitrAte levels. Also, check your temperature is ok and that there haven't been any sudden pH fluctuations. How big is the tank and what other fish are in with him? Are any of them at all showing signs of distress? Anything that may indicate a slight decrease in water quality is important. Also, has this fish been bullied by any of his tankmates or is there any other reason he may be stressed? How long have you had him?

Usualy cloudy eye is just caused by poor water quality and a large water change with fresh de-chlorinated water can solve the problem. If he is showing absolutely no other sign of disease (no pineconing of scales, no lethargy, no bloating, no redness or inflamation, no pop-eye and no sign of fungus, finrot or ich) and is eating happily, provided you have no scaless fish, a low dosage of aquarium salt (after a large water change as described earlier) may be all you need to rid him of the cloudy eye.

If, however, you think he may have a bacterial or fungal infection (obviously I can't see him so I couldn''t say) you should isolate him and treat accordingly. To minimize stress, add some floating cover in the form of either live or plastic plants as well as any polystyrene cups cut lengthways and positioned convex side-up. You should also subdue lighting, maybe cover the tank to minnimize disturbances, and provide a small cave or ceramic pot if he wants it. Make sure the hospital tank has cycled (add some filter media and gravel from an established tank) and make sure it is heated to the same temperature as the main tank. Don't try to use old tank water (provided water chemistry is still matched in both tanks) as it'll only serve to pollute the hospital tank's water and increase the need for constant water changes.

 

[Ldy-Icedragon]

I've had him for about 4 months now, no body's been picking on him since he's the undesputed boss of the tank. He is a 30 gl. with 1 moonlight, 1 blue gourami, 4 thick lips, 3 sparkling gouramis, 1 SAE and 2 rainbowfish. I checked the levels and everything seems about right Amonia 0 and nitrite a little above 0, ph 7.1. The only difference I've noticed is that the orange coloration left his throat 2 days ago, could that mean anything? Usually when that happens I just increase the temp and it comes right back but not tthis time. I'm about to do a 20% water change, I'll be sure to add extra salt.

 

[sylvia]

Are you sure one of the other gouramies hasn't suddenly become more dominant than him? In particular, if that blue is a male, it'll eventualy become the dominant fish (at least over the pearl) and moonlights grow to 7" as well so that fish would be quite a bit bigger than the pearl in time. To be entirely honest with you, that tank has way too many gouramies in it. Mixing 3 trichogaster species and the 4 thick-lipped gouramies in only a 30 gallon may very well be asking for trouble (are they mature yet?). If they are all (or mostly) male, I guarantee you'll have problems... My second reaction was that your problem is due to stress from over-crowding. My first, and most probably the current problem, is that you have nitrItes over 0. In a mature tank, they shouldn't be detectable. You didn't say what your nitrAtes are but I suspect the problem is that you are not doing enough water changes to cope with the tank's bio-load. If the fish in the tank are full grown, you're actualy over-stocked at the moment and should do something about it if you want to avoid further complications. If you have a spare (at least 10 gallons), cycled isolation tank available, fill it up with clean de-chloarinated tap water (same temp. as main tank), add some plants and hiding places and then move the pearl in. I would expect the problem to resolve itself over the next couple of days afterwards. If not, the problem is probably bacterial. I'm only suggesting this because the environment he is in now may well be more stressful over-all than the move would be. Having said that, I'm assuming all the fish are mature (fully grown) and beginning to reachs exual maturity (and thus becoming more territorial and aggressive).

 

[Ldy-Icedragon]

My Pearl's eye has cleared up a lot today. His throat even turned back to orange but not for long (not sure why?) Wells as for the 3 trichogasters the blue and the pearl get along great they are always handing out together in the tank. The Moonlight is just a baby, he (or she) is about a little over an inch. I see him (or her) as the potential problem for the future. He's already got a little attitiude towards smaller fish (nothing too bad but could become worse). Do you know how fast moonlights grow? I plan to get a much bigger tank for everyone in the future, what tank would you recommend for my amount of gouramis? Also the nitrites were only a tiny bit above 0, I can't really tell on my dip strips, the colors are so faint sometimes. As for the bio load I'm willing to do the extra work, I do 20% water changes every few days.

P.S. The blue is fully mature at a little under 4.5 inches. My pearl is only 4 inches but I've heard they can get much bigger, I'm assuming he's not fully mature but I'm not positive on their max length, I've heard they can get about 6 inches, is that true?

 

[sylvia]

Your blue gourami is probably female if it gets along with the pearl. She (as I suspect) is not actualy fully grown as three-spots can get to 6". Pearls get to 5". You can tell if your moonlight is male by looking at the dorsal fin and body shape. If the dorsal is long and pointed as opposed to short and rounded, it's male. If the body is deep and wide (when viewed from above) as opposed to quite lengthy and stream-lined, it's female. The same applies to three-spots (and pearls) so maybe you can also determine your blue's sex. Also, in breeding fish (moonlights I mean), the male's feelers look orange while the female's are more yellow. Moonlights grow extremely quickly if kept in a large tank with very clean water. Most gouramies are like this actualy - evry fast growers when in good condition. However, the exact rate doesn't only depend on water quality, it also depends on the food it's being fed and on temperature - not to mention stress levels and general health. As for what size tank I'd reccomend - because you have 7 relatively large-growing, mostly male (I assume the thick-lipped gouramies are male?) gouramies, you actualy need at least a 70 gallon (more is, of course, much better). I'm not including the croakers in this because they are more a mid-dwelling species so don't cause as many problems when kept together with these trichogaster and colisa species.

 

[Ldy-Icedragon]

My Blue is definately a male (look at his pic below). I don't understand why he's so nice to other fish but he is. (unlike the gold I have in a seperate tank) They really can get 6 inches? I'm amazed at that, a bigger tank is a must before long.

As for the moonlight I'm guessing it's a female, there's a small tinge of yellow on her bottom fin and he top fin is short, all the moonlights looked the same in the store so I guess they were all female? Also from pics online I haven't seen much difference in finnage.

(not the best pic)

 

[sylvia]

Yep the blue (it's actualy an opaline) is deffinately male. It may be that he is just a nice individual or slow to mature. It does happen ...you do sometimes get freindly males. Sorry I can't tell for the moonlight cause the fin's transparent so it's difficult to make out in the pic and the differences in body shape can only be seen once they start growing to a decent size (you said yours is still small) so I won't assume anything just yet - it should become increasingly obvious in time whether it's male or female. As for the lack of variation at your LFS, like I said, the young ones aren't as developed. Neither the differences in body shape nor the fin shapes are obvious.

 

[iron maiden fan]

maybe he's going blind(how old is he?) I don't know about fish but lots of animals just go blind with age becasue of their genetics