Goldfish Cloudy Eye & Ammonia Poisoning??

maddi7777 · Aug 28, 2021

Hi, everyone. About a month ago, my black moor Kovu developed cloudy eye. He is roughly 2.5 years old and has had cloudy eye several times. I tried fixing it doing a lot of water changes, but it didn’t help. So, I used API Fin & Body Cure which fixed it before, but it didn’t clear it up this time. I then tested his water and am maybe thinking that the problem is the ammonia levels??

Ammonia 0.50 ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 10ppm
ph 7.8

I’m very confused as to how he has any trace of ammonia in his tank as I do biweekly water changes and he has a very strong 250 gph water filter.

Can anyone give me advice on how to clear his cloudy eye and/or remove the ammonia from my tank?? Also, if I can’t clear his cloudy eye will he eventually die from it? I’m sorry I’m generally new to the hobby and don’t know much about this disease. Thanks for any and all help.

Below is a picture of his tank and a close-up of one of his eyes. Both his eyes look like this.

maddi7777 · Aug 28, 2021

Yikes I also just noticed he has a small white lump on his tail with a red dot in it. Any idea what this is??? Below is the best picture I could get.

Colin_T · Aug 28, 2021

The cloudy eyes and white bit on the tail are excess mucous produced by the fish because something is irritating it. Most likely the ammonia.

How often and how do you clean the filter?

Filters should be cleaned at least once a month. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

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How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the sand when you do a water change?

What do you feed the fish?
Does the fish get any plant matter?
Goldfish need plant matter in their diet and this can be from live aquarium plants or even fresh fruit and vegetables. Duckweed is a small floating plant that does well in tanks or ponds and goldfish normally love it.

You can use thin slices of cucumber, zucchini, pumpkin and dark green leafy vegetables. Just make sure they are free of chemicals and give them a good wash before putting them in the tank. Remove uneaten veges after about 30 minutes because they start to rot and produce ammonia. If the goldfish doesn't eat these as slices, you can grate or chop them up into little pieces and offer a few bits at a time.

The fish should have some plant matter every day.

maddi7777 · Aug 28, 2021

Colin_T said:
The cloudy eyes and white bit on the tail are excess mucous produced by the fish because something is irritating it. Most likely the ammonia.

How often and how do you clean the filter?

Filters should be cleaned at least once a month. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

-------------------
How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the sand when you do a water change?

What do you feed the fish?
Does the fish get any plant matter?
Goldfish need plant matter in their diet and this can be from live aquarium plants or even fresh fruit and vegetables. Duckweed is a small floating plant that does well in tanks or ponds and goldfish normally love it.

You can use thin slices of cucumber, zucchini, pumpkin and dark green leafy vegetables. Just make sure they are free of chemicals and give them a good wash before putting them in the tank. Remove uneaten veges after about 30 minutes because they start to rot and produce ammonia. If the goldfish doesn't eat these as slices, you can grate or chop them up into little pieces and offer a few bits at a time.

The fish should have some plant matter every day.

Thank you so much for the response! Should I keep trying to use chemicals to treat his eyes and the wound on his tail or should I just work on getting better water quality first?

I wash the filter media in tank water every time I clean the tank (every two weeks). As for the actual filter, I haven’t cleaned it yet but have only had it for about 5 weeks. I also did not know they had to be cleaned. I had two different filters previously and only really cleaned them when the filter stopped working and I was trying to fix it.

I do a water change every 2 weeks and change roughly 50-75% of the water. I hover my siphon over the sand to pick up the waste.

I feed him Omega One sinking goldfish pellets. He sometimes nibbles on the plants in his tank but I don’t feed him any other plant matter. Would it be okay to give him some veggies every day or would that be too much? Thanks again for the help!

Colin_T · Aug 29, 2021

If there is a water quality problem (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or incorrect pH), then all the medications in the world won't really help. They might make the fish appear better for a bit but unless the underlying cause is fixed, the fish will get sick again or remain sick.

The best treatment for poor water quality is big daily water changes and gravel cleaning the substrate every day for a week or two.

Salt can help with excess mucous and nitrite poisoning. Use 1-2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt (aquarium salt) for every 20 litres of tank water. Keep salt in the tank for 2 weeks.

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The filter case and motor/ impellor assembly can be cleaned under tap water any time you clean the filter media. The media holds the good bacteria and this needs to be cleaned in a bucket of tank water. However, the filter case and impellor doesn't hold much if any bacteria and can be washed under tap water.

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If the fish hasn't had much plant matter in its diet, give it some every 3 days for a couple of weeks. Then increase it to every second day for a couple of weeks. Then feed it plant matter every day after that.

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