Betta’s Eyes Cloudy, Shrimp Dying

[James_R]

Hey, so I set up a 10-gallon Iwagumi tank three days ago. Got a koi betta plakat and six red cherry shrimp. And a mystery snail. Everything from my lfs. Shrimp are on occasional algae wafers. Betta gets about eight Fluval Bug Bites a day. Tank’s at 78°F. Still adjusting the CO2. Started at two bubbles every three seconds, bumped it to 1bps since the drop checker is still blue, and Ill see tomorrow if it is in the green.

Came home today, and two shrimp were dead. Thought maybe the betta ate them, but I found exoskeletons. Then I looked at them, and they had the white ring of death. I'll test my water and update soon.

Now the betta. Looked healthy when I got it. Adjusted fine on day two. But on day two, I noticed one eye was a little cloudy. Figured maybe it hit something. Today, both eyes are cloudy. Water issue? Infection? I don’t wanna just throw meds in if I don’t have to. Running a really big HOB packed with media from my cycled canister. Adjusted it so the flow’s super low, just enough to move debris without disturbing the betta.

Also noticed its belly looks a little skinny. Not crazy, but enough to catch my eye today. On the area of its belly where its skinny it also looks kinda popcorny. I noticed that the betta stays near the surface a lot today. Not gasping, not lethargic, just hanging up there. Usually rests at the bottom at night and moves around everywhere during the day, but today, surface.

So, what am I dealing with here? Water issue (Ill give parameters promptly)? Bacterial infection? Just bad luck? Any advice would help. Thanks.

 

[Colin_T]

What to do if your fish gets sick

If your fish ever looks sick or unwell, then the following steps might help. Test the Water and Clean the Tank. Test the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH and write the results down in numbers. Check it for general hardness (GH) and carbonate hardness (KH) too if you can, but...

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FIRST AID FOR FISH
Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

 

[jaylach]

I'm basing this post on your following statement:

Hey, so I set up a 10-gallon Iwagumi tank three days ago.

There is zero way that, in just three days, the tank is cycled. With such a small tank it does not take a lot of time for the waste from the critters to raise the ammonia levels to the toxic level. My initial guess is that the beasties are being killed from from ammonia poisoning.

 

[James_R]

Thanks ffor the rply. I just tested the water. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0-5 nitrate. pH around 7.2. Did the 75 percent water change like you said. Also used an airline tube to get any tiny debris out of the carpet, super satisfying honestly. For the cycle, I seeded the filter with mature media from my 75-gallon canister that’s been running for 2 years. I know it’s not always an instant cycle, but I’ve done this with quarantine tanks before, and it’s always worked well for me.

This tank isn’t new either. Had it running last year as an Endler breeding setup with a full HC Cuba carpet. Got the tank to be heavily plantd with co2 and nitrates were around 0-10ppm. After a month, I ended up not even using a filter, just had a powerhead for circulation. Tore it down last summer but replanted a fresh carpet using the dry start method (the current setup).

Betta looks about the same today. Eyes still cloudy, belly still a little pinched. Ate two out of five pellets, not super interested in food. Shrimp are all good, moving around like usual. Still making small CO2 tweaks till I hit green. Water quality seems fine, so it might be a disease. Based on the link Colin sent, not sure what exactly it is yet. I’ll upload a video for a better look since I can’t really get the best out of photos using my iPhone. Thanks again, seriously appreciate the help.

 

[Uberhoust]

Any possibility that the CO2 is too high during the evening. Do you have a solenoid to shut off the CO2 at night. Not much of a disease knowledgeable person, just trying to think of different possibilities.

 

[Colin_T]

If the fish isn't eating normally and the water quality is good, then it has an internal problem. Maybe a food related issue, many people feed peas to Bettas when they stop eating. Otherwise it might have an internal protozoan infection.

What does the fish's poop look like?

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Innesfan]

If the fish isn't eating normally and the water quality is good, ...

I would find it hard to explain cloudy eyes when the water quality is good. Deteriorated water causes it and clean water fixes it.

 

[James_R]

Just wanted to give an update. The betta is doing a lot better now. He is way more active and not wall surfing anymore (forgot to mention he was before). That stopped after I used Fritz Paracleanse about a week ago. I have been doing regular water changes since then and everything looks good. The cloudy eye is completely gone now. He is active and comes up to eat a lot. I also moved the filter so the flow goes across the length of the tank. That helped with CO2 distribution and circulation (don't worry, I turned off the co2 during treatment and added an airstone). I got and added a peace lily inside the HOB filter. Not sure if it makes a huge difference but it looks good and adds some extra filtration. The shrimp are doing great. I see them moving around and eating. I even saw one shrimp poop which I read is a good sign. The betta poop is black now. I could not really see what it looked like before (it was a bit pale but also black too), so that feels like a good change. The water tests clean. So it probably was not just a water issue. It could have been something internal. Either way, things are stable and better now. Thanks for all the help.

To answer your questions:
- Yeah I have a solenoid so CO2 shuts off at night.
-The drop checker stays green so I doubt CO2 ever gets too high.
- As for the poop I couldn't really see it before, except for when it was on the ground it was both pale and black. but now it's black and solid. That showed up after treatment.
- The cloudy eyes went away too so maybe it was something internal or an injury not just water quality.

 

[jaylach]

Glad to hear it! I have to admit that it surprises me a bit that the 'cloudy eye' went away. I know that fish eyes are different but, in a human, cloudiness would usually mean the lens is clouded over as with a cataract.

 

[Innesfan]

Glad to hear it! I have to admit that it surprises me a bit that the 'cloudy eye' went away. I know that fish eyes are different but, in a human, cloudiness would usually mean the lens is clouded over as with a cataract.

Fish can have cataracts but in most cases, especially bettas, cloudy eye is caused by bacterial or fungal infection, sometimes after an injury, and providing clean water water via multiple water changes will fix it.

 

[jaylach]

Fish can have cataracts but in most cases, especially bettas, cloudy eye is caused by bacterial or fungal infection, sometimes after an injury, and providing clean water water via multiple water changes will fix it.

Thanks. I learned something today which makes it a good day.