Fish Disease?

[Bookworm 1]

Hi,

Today, I came home from school and went to my fishtank to feed my fish. I looked at one of my golden barbs, and to my horror, one of it's eyes looked like the eye of one of those blind cave fish! It was milky white, filmed over, and with no iris or pupil.

This tank is a standard 20-gallon tank, with 14 fish in it. There are 3 striped danios, 6 golden barbs, 2 red barbs whose exact name I don't remember, and 2 alage eaters. The tank has a fair amount of alage buildup, but it's not dirty in any way, and the alege is not too severe. It has a bubbler, and a water filter, and is completly full, as I just filled it up yestarday (and I did use an dechor solution in the water). The fish with the problem is swimming normally, and dosen't look diseased or hurt at all, other then the eye. None of the other fish are affected by any problems as far as I can see, and I've never had this happen before (my fish have never even gotten sick before). I feed them once every day, though I'm not sure what kind of fish food I use. I looked up fish diseases on Wikipedia, but didn't see anything that matched my fish's problem.

Does anybody have any idea why or how this could have happened? Should I do something to protect my other fish? Is this a disease, or did the fish just injure itself somehow?

Thanks for all your help...

[villarule 2]

are they those fish with the massive bulbous eyes?

if so they can easily be damaged if the fish bump into rocks etc. in the tank

[thesonofgray 0]

Try googling fish diseases if you haven't already. There are some very informative sites that I have used in the past to identify fin rot and other popular diseases.

Good luck!

[spa 970]

I had fish for several years and it sounds like it could be one of the handful of common diseases (I can't remember its name but there is a disease that does show up as you describe). My dad has a biology degree, but unfortunately I didn't take his textbook of fish disease with me to Alberta (great little book) so I can't look it up for you, but a filmy eye, rotted fins or white spots are your top warning signs. My advice would be to do nothing. You can go buy medication at a pet store that will treat the tank, but in my experience it costs a lot and often is worse than the disease since it stresses the other healthy fish. I have medicated in the past and had the other healthy fish die on me. I think your best bet is to (and I know it sounds heartless) is to flush the sick one. Now, if the disease spreads then it'll be time to medicate, but when it's isolated to one fish I wouldn't. Better to weed out the sick one as nature intended. The one disease that you should always, always, always medicate and check for when you buy from the pet store is Ick. Ick is the fish form of pink eye or scabbes, highly contagious. Ick shows up in the form of little white spots on fish and requires medication to erradicate.

[Bookworm 1]

@villarule: No, they're just normal eyes. Here's a pic: http://img60.exs.cx/img60/245/450487xr.jpg Those aren't mine, but that's pretty much what they look like.

@thesonofgray: I did a WikiPedia serch, but haven't Googled it yet. I'll do that and get back to you.

@spa: To be honest, I don't think it's a disease because the fish and all the other fish in the tank have no other signs of disease, and, as I mentioned, this is a tank that's never had disease.

**Edit**: I did Google it, and I found that fish can lose an eye by fighting with another fish, bumping into something, or just in a general accident. Though I'm still not completly convinced that's what happened, I am pretty sure that that's the most likey cause.

[Skink000 0]

Hi Bookworm,

I too have raised hundreds of fish in the past but none recently. Where you say "one of it's eyes looked like the eye of one of those blind cave fish!" you and villarule might be on to something and a damaged eye is all it is. I have never had golden barbs but have had others and most of my barbs were very active even aggressive fish and damage to the eye is a possibility.

What spa says about ick is 100% true, I would probably not rush to dispose of the fish in question as long as it acts healthy and keep a VERY close eye on all the fish for ANY new tiny white spots that might indicate ick. Ick can be anywhere on the fish, not just the eye.

Fish can be very tricky I once lost a great breeding pair of angle fish just by changing the water. 

I don't know what your filter is but treat it with care also, do not clean it too often but often enough(ya I know I hate it when some one says something like that to me). They develop a host of bacteria that do a lot to remove fish waste from the water. My filters were hung on the back of the tank on the outside and if they were in good condition they smelled like fresh dirt, good black rich smelling compost like dirt. Bacteria break down organics in a compost heap much like they do in a filter and could be why they smell alike. I'm not sure.

I once had 84 fish in a 30 gallon tank, half of them were neon tetras, that did very well, but that is just waiting for a disaster to happen and it did after several months. (I ran 2 big filters)

Do you put any salt in your water. In the right concentrations fresh water fish thrive with a little salt in the water. It provides electrolytes (like a sport drink) that help keep fish healthy and reduces stress in the fish. You need to research the web to get the right information and don't take the information from one site but several as the one site may be wrong. I used to use Kosher salt from the supermarket  as it has no additives.(I think I was using about a table spoon per gallon but don't use that figure as I am not sure) Also do not replace salt when you replace water that has evaporated as salt does not evaporate. If you do a water change only add enough salt for the new water you add and do water changes so you do not have to change a great deal of the water, better to change 20-30% then to change 50-60%, that way there is less chance of screwing up good water by adding to much new.

Something of interest - the bubbles from your bubbler are not how new oxygen gets into the water. Very little dissolved oxygen is given off by the bubbles, the column of bubbles cause great friction a they rise in the water. This column of rising water keeps the surface water circulating and it is at the line of surface tension on the top where the fresh oxygen is absorbed. 

Good Luck, a good tank of fish hard to beat.

[thesonofgray 0]

Yeah, I wouldn't be too hasty to toss the fish.  But I feel terrible if I accidentally kill a small bug.

Here is what I do to keep up with my (10 gallon) aquarium and I've had no problems (except for a small case of fin rot that I mentioned which was erradicated quickly).

• Be careful not to overfeed;
• I add something called EasyBalance by Tetra every other week; (keeps chemicals balanced)
• I add a tablespoon of aquarium salt every 2 or 3 weeks; (reduces stress - always dissolve the salt in water before putting it in the tank!)
• Of course, I do a 25% water change every month with a gravel vacuum;
• And change my filter cartridge every 2 or 3 months.

Also, I found that snails are the PERFECT aquarium resident.  They eat pretty much everything but their own waste (which they practically don't make at all) and they can get in the super small crevices that algae eaters can't.

[DuskTrooper 316]

Look online for more info about fish diseases. However, from my experience, that is probably some sort of fungal infection, which can be cured with some medicine that you can purchase at a local petstore (at a reasonable price). Once again, consult the internet's vast resources for more info.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

If you really do suspect ick, there is a medication available called "No More Ick" that you can add to the tank.  This is from a biologist friend of mine when she had charge of a major university lab.

[defcon pilot 0]

I have a fish like that. It's just old.

[Bookworm 1]

@Skink000: Wow! I don't have nearly the amount of experience you do with fish stuff... I don't put any salt in the water, no. My tank's always done well the way it is, and I don't want to upset whatever balence there is in it... As far as the bubbler thing, that's really cool.

@thesonofgray: I'm like you. I hate to kill things, even to put it out of it's misery. When I was little, I cried whenever a fish died, even though it was always simply because of old age. Interestingly enough though, my red barbs have been living for almost 6 years now, and they're supposed to go at 3, I believe!

@DuskTrooper: As I said before, it dosen't seem to be sick in any other way, and the area where the eye was dosen't look infected or bleeding.

@N_O_Body: Thanks for the info! I'll look into that if I ever have problems with ick.

@defcon pilot: What kind of fish is it?

[Skink000 0]

@Bookworm: If your barbs are going on 6 years old it is us that should be getting advice from you, thats fantastic, keep on keepin on, don't change a thing.

[Bookworm 1]

Lol, I don't know... I feed them every day and that's it... clean the tank and change the water every so often too.