# cloudy eyes and many deaths - help!



## bluewonder (Jun 8, 2009)

We came home today to find 5 dead fish and our remaining fish not looking well at all: cloudy eyes, some whitish 'chafing' type marks on the fins, and lethargy in some of them. Just a day or two ago everyone looked fine.

The night before, one of our new, small fish, was found sucked into the filter - that death is unrelated. A couple of days before that, we had one dead fish, out of nowhere, but we thought his death may have been due to aggression from one of our other new fish. Now that we're seeing the cloudy eyes we're thinking agression had nothing to do with it but we don't know what it is.

We are cichlid newbies (tank was set up in January) but we've been doing pretty well until now. We're really worried we're going to wake up tomorrow to more deaths, and we don't know what is causing this.

What disease causes cloudy eyes and this chafing affect on the fins? And how could it have suddenly sprung on us? We did a water change and then a few days later got a few new fish. So we're not sure if it was something to do with the water change or whether one of our new fish had a sickness that was passed on.

Help!

When we did the water change we added water conditioner - can you overdo that stuff? Tonight we added some water clarifyer, although really this was just as a last resort because we don't have anything else in our arsenal until we can go to the store tomorrow.

(Our cichlids were African...and 2 South Americans added very recently when we were given the impression we could mix them).


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

The symptoms you are describing sound like a bacteria related illness.
You should get a hold of maracyn and maracyn 2 and treat according to the directions and do daily or bi-daily water changes.
Make sure there is no carbon in your filter when treating.

The cause could be from aggression and/or the new fish you added, they should have been quarantined.
When adding water conditioner you should follow directions and not over do it.
The water clarifyer is not needed.
Also, reconsider your mix of fishes.
How big is your tank and what species do you have?


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I wouldn't advise adding meds to a tank without knowing the water parameters.

What are they?

What is your normal tank maintenance routine?

Are the white areas cottony or fuzzy in appearance?

Have you added new fish recently (in relation to the FIRST death) without quarantine?

You shouldn't be losing fish in a well established tank, so it's going to be important to get to the bottom of things before you go any further. Please be as detailed as possible in your responses.

It's going to be really important to identify your stock, since what you've listed may already be problematic. You can post pics in the unidentified section for help with this. These fish all have different dietary and water requirements, so it's impossible to just start putting them in a tank together.


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## bluewonder (Jun 8, 2009)

Thank you for your replies.

We went to the aquarium store today and got our water tested. Our PH was 6.something, so we got a PH 'up' solution and started adding it (gradually) today. The sales associate who we were told knew the most about these ailments suggested some anti-fungus capsules. I asked her about Maracyn and she said it would be something to try if the (cheaper) anti-fungus capsules didn't work.

Yes, the whiteness in the eyes (and on the edges of the fins of some) look like chafing/skin coming off, but could also be described as cottony bits.

For months, our tank held: a tropheus moori, a flamingo peacock, a brichardi, a cobalt zebra, an ice blue zebra, 2 red zebras, a melanochromis auratus, a hap venustus, an albino socolofi, and a jewel.

In the past month, we got a mbenji lime (african) and a salvani (South American) - we never would have mixed south americans but a girl at the store said our Jewel was a south american, and we thought 'oh, ok, well that one's doing well so I guess it's okay to try another.' we later realized we were correct in that the Jewel was indeed African.

Last week, one of our red zebras died. It appeared a little pale before it died but we didn't see any aggression towards it specifically.

Next, we did our water change (this past Thursday) and bought 4 new fish (this past Saturday or Sunday): a baby yellow lab, a hap 44 (baby), a hap ndiwe (baby), and a green terror (south american).

Among the dead: the tropheus moori, flamingo peacock, Salvani, yellow lab, hap ndiwe, brichardi.

The remaining are alive but all show signs of the illness mentioned above.

Normal tank maintenance....we do about a 40-50% water change every couple of weeks. Should we maybe do 30% weekly instead? We also periodically clean the filter and change the zeo-carb. Every time we do a water change or get new fish we add water conditioner.

The conclusion we are at now is that we added too many fish at once (4) in the past week (we usually only add 1-max of 3 at a time when we do decide to, and we have had our tank up and running since January), and that stress (or disease itself) from the new additions passed a bacterial disease throughout our tank in a short period of time.

Our tank is approx 75 gallons.

Feedback appreciated.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I would NOT use the ph enhancer. It is very likely that you need to buffer the water, but that is not the route to take and now is not the time to do it. I've never seen the products the LFS sell for ph do anything BUT cause problems.

While your ph is too low for the fish you are trying to keep, if you've had them in there for months, they've likely adjusted to it. At this point in time, I'd be more concerned over your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings.

Your stock list was a bit of a mess, so the aggression level of the tank (as the fish mature) is going to add to the stress of the tank. It's not necessarily your numbers that are wrong - it's your stocking choices, but we obviously need to get the ones that you have back in good health before you make major changes.

Yes, I would recommend weekly water changes, especially if you're not keeping up with the water quality with test kits. I would recommend more along 40-50% weekly, if you're not going to invest in test kits. And keep feeding to a minimum...

You're also going to want to check your ph right from the tap.

Do you have driftwood in the tank? If so, remove it. It will lower your ph.

If you post back with tap ph readings, and ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings from the tank, I'll try to help. Without those things, it's hard to know where to start.

Are the fish flashing? Are their fins clamped? Are you witnessing any excessive aggression from any of them?

Are they all eating at feeding time?

What type filtration do you have on the tank?

What are the dimensions of the tank?


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