Cuban gar eye injury.

[SmallMonster]

Today i came here with a heavy heart. One of my 8-9" Cuban gars suffered an attack by my 13-14" Tropical gar 2 days ago.

It had no physical wounds, so I thought I was lucky to stop the attack in time. However I did noticed some blood in the bottom of the right eye.

As its left eye has been the one facing my all along, I did not manage to check out the injured right eye till minutes ago when it made a turn.

The right eye is now swollen and cloudy (external i'd say), and the blood residues are still there.

Can anyone advise me what I should do about it? I really dont wish for this Cuban to lose its right eye - or is it already lost?

Any medications or will it be alright on its own? I have since separated the Cubans since the attack.

Need help asap as I am flying off for Australia in... 26 hours.

 

[Madding]

Gar eyes are pretty tough. Hopefully it will heal with a couple of water changes before you leave.

Any chance of a picture to gauge the damage?

 

[SmallMonster]

Hi madding, its weird to hear the eye of a fish is tough! I'd thought its a sensitive organ.

Any suggestions to how many % water change and temperature to maintain?

Anyway, heres a pic.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

[pharmaecopia]

I would bump the temp, increase waterchanges and add salt.

 

[MonsterMinis]

To me it looks like a fairly common case of cloudy eye and possibly unrelated to the attack. I'de def run a full work-up of your water Chem.... I would not bump the temp or add salt... Cubans are not as hardy as other species. I would check first at your PH ranges.. includeing your KH/GH and make sure these are in the higher range ( a look at the gar species sticky can give you some exact ranges to look at). Cloudy eye is fairly common in high nitrate/and/or ammonia cases. I've also seen it as a result of bacterial infections. It's possible a laceration became infected from the fight as well.... I would rule out water quality issues , and your ranges before messing with meds/salt. Otherwise you'll be fixing the effect but not the cause , and will deal with this again.

atm the eye looks recoverable.

PS- as for water changes ect.. I do a min of 25% weekly on my cubans tank.. but try to do at least one 50% and one 25% mid-week. My water is hard as rocks.. and the PH is in the Mid-Hi 7's... he has a beautiful olive green back and a very strinking black and almost white striped tail. KH and GH are both in the mid-hi 100 range as well. I keep him with 2 floridas that don't seem to mind the water perameters.