Cloudy Eyed Channa Bleheri

[markybruv]

Hi everyone

Unfortunately i am still having trouble with my dwarf channa's eyes, i started a course of Melafix about 2 weeks ago and it started to clear up, but now it's back, still cloudy. I raised the PH slightly and dropped the temperature and added the melafix (tea tree anti bacterial) should i be looking for an anti-fungal treatment instead.
water parameters are thus...
nitrate.....less than 5mg/litre
nitrite......0
ammonia.....0
PH 7.6
temp..... 79 farenheit

water is changed 2o% (down from 30% on advice) weekly with re-min RO, all the other fish are fine.

55 gal with 2 channa bleheri. 1 small pleco, 1 small whip, 1 small oscar and a rescue firemouth.

Any advice welcome

 

[england]

Sounds odd mate, maybe ask in emergency section you would get a better responce, maybe its what they call a "channa black eye"
maybe something is irratating it in the tank, be careful with the oscar may concider it as a meal

 

[dave_oddballs]

i had this problem with my bleheri, one of which came with a cloudy eye, i chose to treat with protozin, i think, it was the blue one anyway. and all was clear within a matter of a few days, never to be seen again! if it is the same problem i would reccomend using this.
they don't cope too well with lots of water changes either, although this is a trcky one when you have other big, messy fish!
hope all goes well!

Dave

 

[markybruv]

Thanks Nelly and Dave
I will give Protozin a go, i have been treating for a bacterial infection, from your advice it looks like fungal.




THANKS CHAPS.

 

[Davo86]

Melafix is only useful for healing open wounds and will do next to nothing for any type of bacterial and parasite caused infection,

Cloudy eyes are a symptom and not a disease in itself, and can be caused by parasites or bacterial infections, Each would require different treatments

However as the water stats are fine I would think that it is flukes or a similar parasite infection and therefore protozin will be very effective

One other thing i will say though is don't tamper with the ph as this itself can lead to many problems and issues

 

[dave_oddballs]

yeah a few things can cause cloudy eyes, like internal infections to parasites and bacterial infections and even simple things like a scratch!
on my bleheri i had a good idea it was a bacterial infection as it was on the surface of the eye and looked more severe than just a rub or a scratched eye, i tried protozin, and it worked.
my second nandu nandus leaf fish i got had a cloudy eye, well in this case it had been pacing up and down the tank in the lfs and scratched its eye on the glass and healed on its own accord within a few days.
good luck, i hope all goes well, they are surprisingly hardy fish and normally pull through unscaved!
when you get the protozin i think it tells you not to use it at the same time or straight after and other treatment but it is perfectly safe to use with both pimafix and melafix so just fire away with the reccomended doses.

Dave

 

[markybruv]

Great advice mate, thanks. Oh and btw, what size is your largest bleheri, mine is about 7" and still growing, he's wide too. What size do they realistically grow to, i was told 8" tops but someone else told me they can get to 10".

 

[dave_oddballs]

my bleheri got killed off by a quit severe case of columnaris, that proved quicky lethal and incurable for the average person!
my biggest one was around 8 inch and seemingly stopped at that, which is supposidly there max length, yeah they are quite chunky channa. i just had the 2, the other was around 6 inch. as with all fish there max size is the max size recorded or an average of the recorded adult sizes, so expect around 8 inch but if it stays a little smaller it is nothing to worry about and the same if it gets a little larger! i wold consider 9 inch in a bleheri very big, but maybe believable, not seen or heard of any, anywere near 10 inch though. mabe its true, mabe not!

Dave