# peacock with an eye injury



## mfishnurse (Jul 6, 2009)

I noticed a small "tag" of tissue hanging at the very edge of the left eye of my favorite peacock yesterday, but otherwise, he looked ok. He's eating well and acting pretty normal, but a little more aggressively guarding "his" corner of the tank from any intruders. Water paramaters are stable for my tank- pH-8.2, ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrate-10, gh-14, kh-11. My tank is a 100 gal, all male malawi setup, and I did note that one other fish had a small abrasion on his face above his eyes, so I'm assuming that the peacock must have injured it in a squabble with this other fish. Today, the peacock's eye is cloudy, and may be a little swollen. He is still acting and eating the same, and does not appear in any severe distress, however, I know how painful eye injuries can be, and how quickly they can get infected. What is the best treatment for something like this? I would hate for him to lose his eyesight, but even worse, I would hate to lose this beautiful fish! Does anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance! Myra


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

Hi Myra,

it's a little unusual that you would have two fish with the same type of injury to the same part of the body. _Not impossible_ though and if it looks to you like an injury then it must be. But if there's any doubt that it's an injury then you may be looking at a bacterial infection.

Your water parameters sound fine but I still might do a partial water change of 30% now and then do another one in a few hours making sure to use a good quality dechlorinator. If you can increase water movement in the tank by adding a jet that would also help. Adding salt at the rate of 1 tablespoon per five gallons is a good idea. Increasing water movement and adding salt help prevent bacteria infections from spreading by making it harder for the bacteria to adhere to the fish's skin.

Melafix is a good product for speeding up healing of an injury. I'd watch all fish very closely over the next couple of weeks. If you notice the injury area suddenly looking worse, spreading, raw, red open areas developing or if the fish stop eating and/or become lethargic then you may need to treat with an antibiotic.

Robin


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## mfishnurse (Jul 6, 2009)

Thanks Robin- have started with your suggestions of water change and salt application. Neither fish looks any worse today. The peacock is the only one with the eye injury, the other one just has a small abrasion up sort of "between the eyes" up toward his dorsal fin, but not quite that far back (hard spot to describe), but it looks like he's just missing a few scales. Will watch them (and the other tankmates) closely, and get some melafix to have on hand just in case. Thanks for the input! Myra


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