Cowfish With Cloudy Eyes?

[lukkylady]

i have a cowfish in my tank for about a month or so now

he had some raised white spots on him which the lfs said werent whitespot but things that settle on him from the water and then drop off again?

but now i notice that hes abit darker in colour and has cloudy eyes

should i be worried about this? does he need quarantining? dont want him to stress out and die and nuke my tank

hes eating well on mysis and brimp shrimp in garlic

any advice/ info??

added also are my water stats:

amm 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 5
ph 8.2
calcium 440 mg/L
phosphate 0.25 mg/L
SG 1.025
KH 110 mg/L
iron 0
temp 26

so according to the test results my water is ok.
i do a 20% water change weekly and vacc the sand, so bad water conditions couldnt be to blame

im afraid to quarantine him incase it stresses him out more, none of the other fish has any spots, or cloudy eyes

other fish are: 2 clowns, 1 mimic filefish, 1 scooter blenny and 1 damsel.. couple snails, hermits, emerald crab and 2 cleaner shrimp

and have just noticed that a clown has long thin white stringy poo,

is this the signs of a bacterial infection or parasite?

 

[@ombomb]

not sure on the treatment, but if it were my tank i'd quarantine immediately

 

[lukkylady]

so i have bought and set up a quarantine tank, used tank water and old sponges in the new filter

and the cowfish is now in it, hes swimming quite happily up and down it

hes a darker colour and his eyes are cloudy still

will i treat him with any kind of medication? or just leave and see if he clears up on his own?

any advice plz?

 

[Colin_T]

The cloudy eyes are probably a minor bacterial infection. "Waterlife Myxazin" might work but be careful because if it stresses the fish then the fish will release a toxin into the water killing itself. Myxazin is normally safe for them but you have to be careful not to overdose.

You also need to feed the fish more variety. Boxfish eat a lot of mussels and shrimp and unless the brineshrimp is enhanced with algae then the fish could be malnourished. Prawn, squid, mussel and fish are good basic foods and a floating/sinking marine pellet will also help. Then brineshrimp and mysis shrimp can be used after the fish have eaten the prawn or fish.

You can add some vitamin C or beta-carotene to the food before you feed the fish. This will help build up the fish's immune system and help prevent some problems.

To work out the volume of water in the tank
measure Length x Width x Height in cm
divide by 1000
equals volume in litres

When measuring the height, measure from the top of the gravel to the top of the water level. If you have big rocks in the tank, remove them before measuring the height.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating otherwise it will absorb the medication out of the water.

 

[lukkylady]

thanks for reply, i asked the lfs, could i feed my fish a more varied diet, and they said mysis and brine shrimp were adequate

they sold me some pellet food that they fed their fish on, and considering i got all my fish from them, you would think that they would eat it, but it floats past them and sinks

its 'new life spectrum marine formula' ?

heres a few pics of my cowfish, maybe shows problem better than i describe it

dont want to dose him with anything, if i can avoid it

i will look into getting him some different foods, but he was well fed in the main tank.

going to keep him in here until he improves 100%

 

[Colin_T]

He has whitespot, note the 3 little white dots on its face between the eyes.
The cloudy eyes could be from the whitespot but more likely bacterial.
Myxazin should clear up whitespot and bacterial problems but you will have to treat the fish for about 10 days. If you can't get Myxazin then try to get some Waterlife Protozin and use it at half strength. that will treat the same things.
If you can't get either of them then a broad spectrum medication used at half strength (or at a dose for catfish and loaches) should be used for a week to 10 days.
Increase the surface turbulence and keep the water well filtered during treatment.
After treatment and the fish is a bit better then keep it isolated for a couple of weeks until it settles down properly. Then move it back into the main tank.

 

[lukkylady]

after i treat him, will i need to treat the rest of my tank as well?

think my clowns have a few spots on them as well?

will myxazin be invert friendly?

cos if i treat the cowfish and clear him up, will he not get reinfected in the main tank if its not treated?

 

[Colin_T]

If the main tank has whitespot then you will need to treat it as well. If you only have a few fish and lots of corals then move the fish out and treat them in another tank. The whitespot parasite will die without a fish host and the tank should be free of it after a couple of weeks without fish in. The parasites don't infect shrimp or corals.
If you have lots of fish and rocks, and only a few corals then move the corals and shrimp to another tank and treat the fish in their current tank.
I'm not sure if Waterlife products are safe on corals. Maybe start a new thread asking this question. I'm sure someone out there has used it on tanks and will respond.

 

[Musho3210]

lol, good luck losing the white spot in your tank without a host for just a couple of weeks. Most stories say that doesnt work and not until they tried a couple of months did it go away. Ski, i think, quarantines his fish for 6 or 8 weeks for this reason.

 

[dilbert]

You also need to feed the fish more variety.

I would like to add here vegetables, too. See www.cowfishes.com

 

[lukkylady]

thanks for all the replies, my clowns and mimic filefish have whitespot in my main tank, i will need to get this treated asap. thanks for replies

 

[lukkylady]

my lfs has recommended treating cowfish with copper, and a reefsafe med for the main tank, as dont think i could catch the clowns in there

have also turned the temp up, and feeding them well

the cowfish doesnt look too good tho, hes eating well still, tho his eyes do look bad, very cloudy and spots on them,

if the whitespot dont finish him, something else might im fearing

so fingers crossed, he survives..

 

[Colin_T]

don't turn the temperature up unless you have medication in the tank. The warmer water will only speed up the whitespot lifecycle and more parasites will infect the fish. Only increase the temperature if you have medication in the water.

 

[lukkylady]

well an update so far

the guy in the lfs was alot of help,

he gave me formaldehyde for a dip for the cowfish, which has now been done, then copper based med to treat the cowfish in the quarantine tank.

gave me oodinex for my main tank, which now has been treated, and he recommended if i could get the clowns, to also give them a dip as well

so far, so good

the cowfish is still in good form and eating, and hopefully he will recover fully...

fingers crossed

 

[Musho3210]

you wont be able to do much with the stuff in the main tank, all those reef safe treatment stuff are junk. Copper will get rid of it, but it will poison your rock and water. Just leave it uninhabited for 6-8 weeks.