# cloudy puffy eye



## becikeja (Oct 14, 2007)

I'm back for help. I have a nicaraguanisis about 12 months old. When I got home from work I noticed one eye was cloudy and puffy. I quickly set up my 10 gallon tank, and transfered some of my filter media a few rocks and some water from the 125g tank into it. The fish has now been isolated. Now what?? Is there anyway to treat this? How bad is it?

I do not see any visible signs on my other fish so I plan to keep a close eye and cross my fingers. Should I being doing something to the main tank other than a water change?


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

What are the water parameters on the main tank?

What is your normal tank maintenance routine?

Eye issues like this usually stem from either poor water quality or an injury. In those cases, clean water (daily water changes) and Melafix will usually resolve it.

In a few cases, it's a precursor to a bacterial infection, which may require antibiotics.

Is the fish eating and behaving normally otherwise?


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## becikeja (Oct 14, 2007)

He was eating fine the day before I noticed the eye. This evening when I came home he was deceased.

The other fish in the tank seem fine. I have a 125G with a UV sterilizer on it. I have 2 Magnum 350 filters with Bio-wheel returns. I do a 25% water change every other week. Not sure what else I could do. The tank has been up and running for about a year with no porblems until now.

The rest of the fish appear to be fine.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I'm sorry you lost him.

Those water changes are pretty minimal, especially for the tank size. I would move the frequency up to weekly, and the percentage up to at least 30%, possibly 40%.

Bigger fish produce more waste, and although your filtration is adequate, your tank maintenance may not be. Things like this can happen one year in, or sometimes sooner or longer than that, depending on the waste that goes through the tank.

How are you cleaning the substrate? Have you ever cleaned it well? Do you churn it on a regular basis? The reason I'm questioning this is because biweekly 25% water changes wouldn't allow for a good cleaning of the tank...Ever...

Because of your maintenance history, I would be very careful disturbing the tank too much right off the bat. I would increase the water changes, and would work on one side of the tank at a time as far as the substrate goes, rather than doing it all at once. If the substrate has never been well cleaned, you could release toxic gases into the water that may be dangerous if you do it all at once.

It would be very interesting to know your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels.


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## becikeja (Oct 14, 2007)

Not sure of the actual levels, I don't have a water test kit, I know I should get one. As far as cleaning the substrate, when I do a water change I use a siphon and continuously leverage it in out of the rock on the bottom sucking out as much stuff as possible. I know I'm not getting all of it, but it appears to get most of it. On each water change I clean one filter, and rotate on the next water change. They seem to stay fairly clean that way.

I'm shocked that it's water quality issue, I would have thought 25% every other week would have been adequate. I'll increase it to every week and see how it goes. Thanks for the advise.


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