Cloudy,damaged eye for weeks-tried Epson & erythromycin

[Cardeater]

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out what to do with this millennium rainbowfish in my QT tank.

I originally thought it had Popeye and posted this thread on fishlore.com:
https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/i-think-fish-has-popeye.360669/

This was back in August. Someone be recommended using epson salt. The swelling did go down but eye eventually just looked deflated. I stopped the Epson salt after like three weeks.

I've been changing water almost daily or at worst every other day so nitrates are always under 5-10 and ammonia and nitrite at zero.

The eye never got better as was cloudy so like a month ago I tried treating with erythromycin as I had some and I had read gram positive bacteria often are responsible for eye diseases.

I thought i might help but eye looks the same.

Two days ago, there was a white area on the fish skin. It may have got nicked by syphon. I'll try to post a pic of it tomorrow. It like a little dot of white or just discoloration. It hasnt gotten worse or better in three days.

I'm debating trying Kanaplex to try a gram negative treatment but figured I'd get some advice here.

This is from a few weeks ago but eye basically has looked like this for like 6 weeks.

I just got a new phone so I'll try to get better pics tomorrow. Basically, the eye now looks deflated compared to to other eye and center of eye is a dull white color. Again, I'm not sure if the eye is just permanently daged or if he has an infection. There are more pics in that thread I linked.

There are 5 panda garra in there, one male albino millennium, three female albino millenniums, and two female regular millenniums with him. His color is usually a deep red and he seems to dominate the tank in spite of the messed up eye. I saw him mating with one of the females yesterday. The bigger Albino millennium seems beta to this messed up eye male millennium.

Thanks for any input.

 

[Cardeater]

I just screenshot this zoomed pic as well. I tried turning on light to take pics but fish started flipping out so ill wait until tomorrow for more.

 

[squint]

I would switch over to a Gram negative antibiotic. It's usually Gram positive but not always...

 

[Cardeater]

I would switch over to a Gram negative antibiotic. It's usually Gram positive but not always...

Thanks. I just ordered Seachem Kanaplex. I'm going away for 2.5 days Monday night so I hope fish continues to survive till then. I should've made this post a few weeks ago and tried the this netw treatment plan then.

Edit:

I just took these pics. Clearer with new phone:

The second pic shows the small white mark/discoloration or possible Nick injury just in front of the dorsal fin. That is what showed up Monday.

 

[Cardeater]

Started Kanaplex today. Will report any progress.

Here are two pics I just took:

 

[skjl47]

Hello; While I may be very wrong about your fish, in my experience once such eye damage occurs then it does not get better. That the fish has lived may be the best you can hope for. Very often any fish of mine who developed eye issues did not survive. A few who did live were blind and I have seen blind fish in others tanks.
I am not trying to say that I know for sure about this because I do not. I also have not had that many fish with eye issues.
Good luck

 

[Cardeater]

Hello; While I may be very wrong about your fish, in my experience once such eye damage occurs then it does not get better. That the fish has lived may be the best you can hope for. Very often any fish of mine who developed eye issues did not survive. A few who did live were blind and I have seen blind fish in others tanks.
I am not trying to say that I know for sure about this because I do not. I also have not had that many fish with eye issues.
Good luck

Yeah I've been thinking this may be the case with this fish. If this fish doesn't improve after this treatment, I'm pretty sure there's nothing I can do.

The plan will be to treat with general cure as I planned on doing that anyway as part of my QT deworming process.

I just want to make sure this isn't contagious as I don't want to risk my display tank fish.
So far, none of the other fish show any signs of disease so that's good.

Thanks for input.

 

[squint]

This may very well be the case. Most eye infections that people post about are ongoing and need to be cleared to limit damage to the eye and spreading to other parts of the body.

You'll need more than praziquantel to deworm since it only works on cestodes. Check that the dosage is correct as well. A lot of commercial combination products underdose.

 

[Cardeater]

This may very well be the case. Most eye infections that people post about are ongoing and need to be cleared to limit damage to the eye and spreading to other parts of the body.

You'll need more than praziquantel to deworm since it only works on cestodes. Check that the dosage is correct as well. A lot of commercial combination products underdose.

Thanks. I already did two rounds of levamisole.

Fish looks the same after 48 hours so probably nothing is going to change but I'll go with the max 3 doses of Kanaplex anyway.

 

[Cardeater]

Just to update, I finished Kanaplex and the eye is the same. It does appear that the eye is just bad. I think there's no infection as it's not popped out and erythromycin nor this had any effect.

I'll just finish with doing a round of general cure a week as that will have given them ten days of rest from meds. I might wait even longer. Maybe I'll do Ich x as well as I have some from watching the Aquarium Coop med trio videos.

Considering the other fish in QT look normal, it seems unlikely this rainbow has anything contagious.