cloudy eye

[justin]

my big males, left eye looks cloudy looking .he is the only one in the tank that is like this . he has been chasing the other male around alot lately.is there any diseases that can cause this i should be worried about.if so what is the treatment .thanks

[mitra-hyderabad]

Cloudy eyes may be due to water quality issues. I treat my fish with ciprofloxacin for cloudy eye and i had excellent results so far.

One tab of ciprofloxacin 500mg to 30 gallon of water followed by a water change every 24 hours.

Try this and keep us updated on the eye!

[justin]

where can i buy this at . and i have females holding will it hurt them .the water test fine i change 50%-60% of water every 7 days .thanks for the help

[waterboy]

just do a few water changes and add some epson salt....

[neutrinoman]

Yes, water quality issues can cause cloudy eyes, but it's much more likely due to him scratching his eye on something, due either to chasing around or getting spooked. Sure, it dosen't hurt to check you water quality (or temperature) as a sanity check, but by the time most people are keeping fronts they've got the water quality thing figured out. If poor water quality was the cause then issues wouldn't be isolated to one fish.

There are a variety of treatments or meds that will work, but a good way to start is with a water change (not for ammonia and nitrites, which I assume are 0, but to reduce nitrate and overall organics in the water). Everyone has their own preferred treatment; personally, I've had excellent results by simply catching it early, doing a water change and then adding a low dose of Melafix, such as 1/3 dose or even less. I've had success with just water changes and a little salt also, (with sodium chloride, not epsom salt) but I've found Melafix to clear it up quicker, at least ime.

[justin]

just did a water change 50% .my water quality is ok. i think he might have scratched it on something. thanks for the help.

[neutrinoman]

i think he might have scratched it on something. thanks for the help.

I expect that's what it is. I've gotten one from time to time and I guarantee a thousand percent % it's not my water, which has low nitrates (around 5) and 0 everything else (ammonia, nitrite). One just gets nicked occasionally, usually no big deal if you take care of it right away.

[justin]

neutrinoman,my tank is 180 gallon. the melafix says to use 1 tsp per 10 gallons .you said to dose at 1/3.so would i use 6 tsp for my 180 .and it says to treat for 7 days .then do a water change .is this how you do it .just want to make sure i do everything right .never had to use melafix before .thanks for the help

[neutrinoman]

That sounds right. I often find I only have to dose just a day or two and it's cleared up already. I like to do a water change before adding the Melafix (good idea with just about any meds). I typically just wait for my next normal water change, even when their eyes clear up the next day and I'm not adding any more Melafix.

Only thing to watch with Melafix is it can make your fish breath fast (why some people don't like it) but this seems to vary with different people, different water, etc.

This is why I started experimenting and dosing less than full dose, with the result that I find a lower dose works just as well for me for relatively minor problems like cloudy eyes or torn fins, etc. The accelerated breathing is temporary and in my case pretty mild, but if you haven't used Melafix before you may want to start slow and see how it does.

If for some reason I do want to do a full dose, I add it gradually, though when I first started using it and was doing full doses all at once, the faster breathing was still temporary and didn't do any harm to the fish, but I'm still more comfortable minimizing it as above.

[Ron R.]

A wc and melafix works for me.