My Fish Is Blind!

[lizjamie]

I have a black moor who has been cured of ick, but his he had one cloudy eye, and despite the spots disappearing (although the other fish still has it) they 2nd eye is getting worse.
I am really worried that if the other eye also clouds over completely, that he wont be able to eat as he cant see his food.
Has anyone had this problem before? I am not sure if it is just the ick and will go away when it is all gone, or if there is another bacterial infection involved.
I have only used protozan treatment so far, I didnt want to add salt too incase it was too much for them. But I will do once I have finished the cycle of meds.
ANy opinions are most appreciated. The fish seems happy enough apart from the semi blindness (eating, swimming about)

 

[WILDER]

How many gallons is the tank, plus full stock list of how many and which type.
Can you post water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate, and ph.
Is there any white specs on the eye.

Not the writer of this information below.
Eye Flukes (a.k.a. Eye Cloud)



Symptoms:

Fish with this condition will have white specks inside the lens of the eye. This can lead to further damage, ranging from cloudiness of the eye to rupturing of the lens and blindness. In severe cases the eye may actually be pushed out and removed from the socket, leaving the fish eyeless.



Cause:

The larval stage of digenetic fluke parasites, such as Clinostomum, Posthodiplostomum and Diplostomum spathaceum. The parasite lodges in the lens, humour or retina of the fish’s eye. If present in large numbers, severe damage can occur. Minor infestations may go unnoticed. The life cycle of these flukes begins when fish-eating birds and other animals ingest fish infected with the parasites. Once ingested the parasites mature in the intestines of the host animal where they produce eggs. The eggs are then deposited into the water where they hatch and infect the livers of aquatic Snails. The parasites then develop into a second and third larval form before leaving the Snail to seek out a fish host. This type of parasitic infestation is most common in wild-caught fish and fish kept in ponds.



Treatment:

Treatment with Copper or Organophosphorous antiparasitic remedies have proven most beneficial. Prevention, however, works best. This entails avoiding any obviously infected fish, discouraging fish-eating birds from visitng your pond, and remving any snails from the aquarium or pond to end the cycle of infection (so as to interrupt the life cycle of the parasite).




Not the writer of this information below.
Cloudy Eye- Cloudy eye can have many causes. Look for signs of Velvet Disease, Ick, and Fish tuberculosis. However, sometimes this is caused due to bacterial infections. Symptoms: One or both eyes become cloudy, and take a whitish appearance. Fish may show signs of distress, and be off-color and behave abnormally. Treatment: Establishing the likely cause of the problem and treating it as soon as possible is the best way to prevent damage to your fish's nervous system. The incidences of cloudy eye can be maintained by keeping the water quality in a good condition, and adding a small amount of aquarium salt to the water at water changes. There are many good medications available at your local pet stores that deal with this problem. Follow the recommended accordingly

 

[fishtank]

well if it carnt smell its food its f&@ked, no seriously ive seen this before and will probably go away, if not its a visit to the big white well im affraid

 

[WILDER]

Can you issolate the fish, as if the whitespot has gone and water quality is good, you might need to try a bacterial med.

 

[lizjamie]

Tank is 58 litres, in it 1 baby oranda about 1 inch long and 1 baby black moor slightly longer (not counting tails). I am aware of general consensus that while this is fine for now, a bigger tank is immenent.

Water stats are ammonia 0.25ppm, nitrites 0.5ppm, nitrates just below 10, ph just under 7. Tank has been with fish 2 weeks and set up about a month before, tried to fishless cycle but it emerged I had not done this correctly before I started. Stats arent great but I have been doing a 25 to 50% water change every morning!
Protozan treatment had been going well but think all the water changes have stopped it working so effectively. So once this cycle of treatment is done I was intending to try the salt treatment which is more compatible with manical water changes.

No specs on the eyes (both are pretty bad) they just look cloudy and milky, kind of like they have a cateract. I read on some sites that this could be an ick symptom which is why i wonder if they are related, as the eye went cloudy at around the same time the ick appeared. I also thought maybe it was some kind of bacteria infection? From websites this also seems to be common with ick suffering fish.

 

[WILDER]

I would say cloudy eye is definately from poor water quality.
I would recommend some water changes to get them stats down.
Plus what filter are you using as it will probably be to small for these big waste producing fish.
I would give the fish with the cloudy eye a salt bath, one tablespoon to the gal, also adding some salt to the tank, one tablespoon, to help with the stress and poor water quality.
Are you running and airstone for extra aeration.

 

[fishtank]

theres ya problem ya changing ya water to often im lukey if i do mine once a month.

and for gods sake never put salt in ya tank

 

[WILDER]

theres ya problem ya changing ya water to often im lukey if i do mine once a month.

and for gods sake never put salt in ya tank
If you have nothing constructive to say, don't bother.

http/www.2cah.com/pandora/Disease.html#Cloudyeye

 

[fishtank]

all this technical nonsense is rubbish just take ya fish out clean your hole tank system and gravel in the bath with nothing but fresh hot water put it all back together put ya water in making sure its about the right temp,put some chlorine treatment in and get a fluval filter in there and your oxygen pump, put the fish back in and just clean water when dirty roughly about once every 2 weeks or so to start i promise ya if ya do this right youll have no further probs, if ya do just put a drop of methayne blue in the, dont worrie your water waill turn blue for a while but it will clear up and once it does the methayne blue will have got rid of any deseases the fish may have.this stuff cures anything trust me.

 

[WILDER]

I've seen people do that method and there fish die through stress, plus the tank isn't big enough for the both of them, but i would invest in a fluval filter for the tank say a fluval 2 0r 3.

 

[tidytourniquet]

Dont do what fishtank has said, that would be a bad idea. Everything that Wilder has said seems right on so please continue listening to them.

I have a black moor that is blind in his one eye, its been that way for a couple years now. Black moors are actually prone to having problems with their eyes sometimes you just cant help it but lets hope that it is just either from the water quality or the ich and will hopefully get better after those get better. I have heard of a fish being completely blind and doing just fine, they just need a little help with eating which you can do by hand feeding. It not only will be helpful for the fish but you become closer to the fish and I think its kinda neat that they trust you so well to take something from your hand.

 

[WILDER]

Thank you a sensible answer.

 

[tttnjfttt]

I'm gonna second what Tidy said, ignore what fishtank has been saying. It is wrong on many levels. Wilder is very respected around here and she is very helpful and knowledgable about fish diseases. I also agree with what she has posted, and recomend you follow her steps.

Fishtank - this isn't meant ot be a bash on you, but you have some very inaccurate information. Please be careful in what you post in the emergency section. When members come here they are often panicking and will follow any advice, even wrong advice. Please take some time to learn and research caring for fish. I recomend you begin with reading up on the nitrogen cycle. If you want some links on this, feel free to PM me and i can point you in the right direction

 

[fishtank]

ive done things this way for 8 years now and the only time i find a dead fish is when the other fish have killed it

 

[tttnjfttt]

ive done things this way for 8 years now and the only time i find a dead fish is when the other fish have killed it

Realllllllyyyyyyy. I find that hard to believe especially since your advice to this person was "will probably go away, if not its a visit to the big white well im affraid"


and some info for you on why salt can be helpful in a freshwater aquarium http/www.aquariumfish.net/information/aquarium_salt.htm as long as the fish arent' scaleless fish.

Some info for you on why you don't wnat to take everything out and rinse it in hot tap water
http/faq.thekrib.com/begin-cycling.html

the last link i gave you also will show you what all this "Techinical" junk is and why water quality problems are important