# Sunshine puffy cloudy eye



## Acichted (Oct 9, 2016)

I have a sunshine with a cloudy puffy eye. It came up a few days ago. Swelling increased for a couple days and then yesterday seemed to be about the same, maybe not quite as swollen. I have a 10 gallon tank setup I can move him into, should I? Will this heal on its own with pristine water or should I medicate? If medicate, what should I use? His vision is obviously affected by it as he swings-and-misses a lot a feeding time now. Thanks


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

You just need to keep the water very clean, by that I mean 10 ppm or less of nitrates. How often are you doing water changes and what are your parameters currently?


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## Acichted (Oct 9, 2016)

Thanks Caldwell. Had cichlid tanks for about a year and a half now and finding the nitrate levels are hard to control. I do water changes once or twice a week. About 25% each time. I'll up the amount of water and do them more often. This tank had been on a once-a-week schedule for last month or so. Haven't tested the water but was thinking it was a water quality issue. I'll at least test the nitrates more often, too.

Also, do you know if this guy is/will be blind in this eye or will his vision be ok assuming the cloudiness goes away?


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## thornsja19 (Feb 4, 2017)

Your nitrates are probably hard to control because you're not doing large enough water changes. If you only do 25% changes you're only removing 25% of the nitrates. So if you have a heavily stocked tank the nitrates are building up faster than you're removing them, resulting in higher and higher readings over time. Try 50% changes. It'll keep your readings lower more consistently


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Start out with 50% every other day until you get the nitrates to about 20ppm then do a 75% the following day. Then at least 50% weekly, and clean your filters once a month. Probably need to cut back on feeding as well, overfeeding and inadequate maintenance are usually the cause of high nitrates and pop eye.


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## Acichted (Oct 9, 2016)

Thanks, guys. Yeah that's a lot more water changed out than I have been doing. I tried testing but my test kit (API liquid) must be getting old as results came back at zero nitrates, obviously not right. I'll get a new kit. I changed about 50% on Monday, I'll do another change today and just keep at it.


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Alright, keep us updated on how he's doing


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## Acichted (Oct 9, 2016)

Fish is still alive and well. Didn't do anything except additional water changes. He's missing the eye, but seems to get along fine with just one, doesn't seem to be bothering him any more than expected. Still eats fine.

Here's the eye at it's worst









Then a day or two later looked like this









Now it looks about the same, just flat, missing the eye.


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## Old Newbie (Feb 18, 2017)

Acichted said:


> Thanks, guys. Yeah that's a lot more water changed out than I have been doing. I tried testing but my test kit (API liquid) must be getting old as results came back at zero nitrates, obviously not right. I'll get a new kit. I changed about 50% on Monday, I'll do another change today and just keep at it.


Did you shake the #2 nitrate test solution vigorously for 30 to 60 seconds prior to adding it to the test tube? You will get a nice bright yellow result (zero nitrates) if you don't shake that bottle well.


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