Clown knifefish disease???

[burban0428]

My clown knifefish is having problems. He is rubbing against things in the tank. Other than scrapes from doing that his skin doesn't show any obvious signs of disease. But obviously something is bothering him.
His eyes have some white build or crust around them. I haven't seen anything like this before.

Tank is a 240 gallon with 2 spongefilters, 2 fx6 filters, and a powerhead. Tank mates are an arowana and 2 large silver dollars. No other fish show any signs or of sickness.

Any help is appreciated. I was going to start treating with melafix in the morning.

 

[narayanang76]

I don't have specific knife fish related experience, still I suggest the following:

Check your water parameters and also chlorine levels. High Nitrate/Chlorine can cause the rubbing behavior.

Reg eye, it looks like cloudy eye, try the following (cloudy eye may also cause the rubbing behaviors, sine the vision gets impacted):
More frequent water changes, 30-40%, once every 2-3 days
Add Aquarium salt
Maintain temp around 28 to 30 C
Try any Cloudy eye medicine, pls check with your LFS. OF (Ocean Free) has one Anti Cloudy eye medicine available

Watch it more closely and in most cases, the cloudy eye vanishes in a few days.

 

[predatorkeeper87]

As suggested, water parameters are almost certainly the issue here. Water changes, a little bit of salt treatment, and observe.

Melafix is garbage, don't waste your time with it. It won't help.

If anything I would treat with Paraguard just as a precaution against secondary infection, but I think water quality is going to be your deciding factor here.

 

[burban0428]

Thank you. I usually do water changes every other week. But I will do them every couple days for now and throw some salt in as well.

 

[jwh]

What dose of salt do you guys recommend?