HELP: flashing + cloudy eye

[swozzie]

I bought 4 Red Line Torpedo barbs some 3 weeks ago. After a day I noticed 1 of them had a white spot on his nose, another had a cloudy eye with a tiny white dot in the middle.

I did some ICK treatment for the white spot which didn't help. Then I did some Myxazin treatment. The white spot has now gone but the cloudy eye still remains.

Both the white spot treatment (WSP) and the Myxazin clame to cure cloudy eyes but neither worked.

Now the barbs are occaisionally rubbing themselves against the gravel/cave (1 more than the others). This seems to be getting worse. Anybody got any ideas what could be going on?

Ph 6.8-7.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate <30
Temp 26

All medicine treatment stopped a week ago.

 

[swozzie]

Here is a picture of the cloudy eye + white dot. In real life it looks a bit more cloudy.

 

[tstenback]

the cloudy eye is usually a bacterial infection but you have already used Myxazin. If it doesnt clear up in the next couple of days you could try gentamycin which is a very strong med. There may be another reason for the cloudiness such as a parasite so have a close inspection of the fish and see if there are any other conditions that exist on this guy. Is the whole eye cloudy or just the outer edges. Is it a clear film or translucent? Keep us posted

 

[swozzie]

I now have 3 Clown Loaches in the tank, since you say Gentamycin is a strong med, is it safe to use with these loaches. Since they don't have scales I am thinking they may be effected more by medication.

Whereas the eye is normal jet black, this one is cloudy. Bit difficult to explain but you could say there is a film across the entire eye making it a milkish appearance. He has no other abnormalities and it seems that he can still see through this eye (although it difficult to know what other cues he can pick up on to compensate for it).

I am thinking it may have been damaged when the fish were netted at the fish shop since I noticed it the day after I bought him. Another fish had a white spot on his nose at the same time that cleared up with the Myxazin.

 

[tstenback]

Gentamycin is also very expensive. i have access to this and of course did not know what it cost in the store. I think that it is arouns $150 for a small bottle of powder. So that may be a bit pricey for a conditon that does not seem to be life threatning. Instead perhaps you could try a fungus med such as Jungle Fungus Guard, Mardel Maroxy, Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Fungus Cure.
Also perhaps before trying any of these you may want to do a series of water changes say 10% per day for a week or so. Cloudy eye is often caused simply by an irratant in the water and where these fish have been exposed to chemicals over the last while water changes just may do the trick. I have seen this condition disappear simply by doing water changes more often. HTH