Just picked up this amazing Peacock on Sat...Eye clowded over today

[TheFanatic]

Some guy advertised on Craigslist that he was dumping his 215 gallon tank and all fish. I was the first guy there to pick up some fish. I got this really awesome peacock (I'll post a pic tonight as I left my memory chip at home). The guy was the Alpha Male in the 215. He's not the AM in my tank. He's been taking a bit of a beating.

This morning I see his eye is clowded over. Can this be caused by aggression or something else? I've only really kept Africans for about 4 months now so this is pretty new to me. I'm doing a ton of research but still need some advice...

 

[Coler]

Could be a soft tissue injury if he's taking a beating - no doubt he is trying to claim the spot he had in the old tank.

Keep the water super clean - shoot for nitrates at 10 - and he should make a quick recovery as long as he can stake his place in the tank. I'm saying keep the water super clean in case he has a little bacterial infection from the stress of the move and his new acquaintances.

 

[johnny_1993]

yeah, exactly what coler said.
pics too! did you get the 215? what other fish did you pick up............

 

[mike dunagan]

wanna see pics

 

[cichlidgirl]

Where are the pics LOL.

If you are worried about the eye cloud then you can treat him for it. Dont let it get out of control. There are several treatments available that dont mess with the cycle of the tank, i had good luck doing extra water changes and using light doses of melafix (between half and full dose) .

 

[TheFanatic]

Thanks for the advice. I haven't done a water change since the 30th of March. I'm doing another tonight or tomorrow.

I will post some pics when I get to work...

 

[Muske]

Could just be a wound...
One of my brichardi had a cloudy eye from a fight. It cleared up in about 5 days w/o any meds. Do a WC asap. Weekly water changes are huge in keeping fish healthy. I was on a 30-40% Bi-weekly schedule, but have found that 20-30% weekly has done wonders for growth and water quality. I even go as far as doing it at the "Same bat channel, Same bat time" each week.

 

[my4age]

http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/fish_diseases/eyes.html
have a look at this site, u might find it helpful

 

[TheFanatic]

OK, here we go. I did not buy the 215 gallon tank. The tank was reeeaaallllyyy old. The cabinet was something straight out of the 70's which made me really leery. That and I have no place to put it. That and if I brought home a 215 gallon tank 6 days before my wife is due she would kill me. BTW, down to 3 days till the wife is due

So the fish I bought that has the eye clouded over was the alpha male of the tank. Well he may have been the AM of that tank but he's takin a beating in my tank. I probably should've rearranged but I just yanked those "ZO's" and wrecked and reassembled the tank so I really didn't want to mess with that again so soon. Particularly when I plan on putting the fems back in and will have to yank them again once they are knocked up again.

They guy charged me $20 for the AM. But the rest he only charged me $5. Including the Ahli, Venustus and the Zebra. I also got 2 Taiwan Reefs and two Red Topped Zebras but they were all pretty small - around an inch - but none of the pics of them were any good. Doesn't matter. They don't have much color going on anyway right now. So here are the pics. I wish I knew how people put text between pics in the same post...

 

[Robertshadow]

Some guy advertised on Craigslist that he was dumping his 215 gallon tank and all fish. I was the first guy there to pick up some fish. I got this really awesome peacock (I'll post a pic tonight as I left my memory chip at home). The guy was the Alpha Male in the 215. He's not the AM in my tank. He's been taking a bit of a beating.

This morning I see his eye is clowded over. Can this be caused by aggression or something else? I've only really kept Africans for about 4 months now so this is pretty new to me. I'm doing a ton of research but still need some advice...

My Red Empress and strawberry get that once in a while, basically they freak out easily and hurt themselves. I doubt it was another fish, at least for eye injuries. Cut fins and such generally are, although don’t get me wrong a fish could have bitten his eye; although it’s more likely he would get his tail or back fins. The first thing my new Strawberry did when I got it was hit the roof of the tank and hurt his eye. As long as you keep the water clean he should be fine.

On the other hand if he's getting picked on... well they are less aggressive cichlids, in my experience I would almost say they can be kept with community fish, and I have on several occasions.

My general experience with peacocks is they always avoid fights by out swimming and out maneuvering other bulkier tougher fish. Aggressively they are blearily cichlids lol.

They are wimpy fish that will take a beating and not fight back, I remember when I first got my Red empress even the smallest fish was picking on it. Unlike rock dwellers that start picking fights as soon as ya drop em in.

Despite what people a few people on the internet might say, don't be rash to treat an entire tank with medicines. Products like melaflax kill the beneficial bacteria, and generally stress out the other fish. Keeping the water crystal clean and adding a bit of salt generally helps with small wounds. Oh and I always keep the water very warm, it quickens the lives of parasites.

Don't put all your fish in danger by starting a mini-cycle with malalfax or such products. They are last resort items, and should be treated in a separate tank, once you are 100% sure that the fish actually sick. Although I know a lot of people casually use medicines and end up losing fish after fish.

My friend just lost half a fish stock from using malaflax needlessly and not listening to me, and from my personal experience fish recover fast in good conditions, and healthy fish don’t no matter how much medicine you use.

Right now I'm nursing a frontosa back to health that I saved from a bad fish store, he's eating now and doing much better despite his brutally torn fins and missing half a tail. When he was still in the hospital tank I asked for advice, and I got the general answers I expected some good some bad. I was shocked when two people rashly told me to use malaflax and the other medicine!
One person said he had whole in head disease, without even fully reading the post. Another said to be safe use medicine…. I just had a good laugh. It scares me to think that people actually freak out and follow this terrible advice.

Imagine just causally saying, your fish has whole in the head disease treat it immediately!
Without even seeing pictures of it or having an de-tailed understanding, not to mention many diseases look similar yet have different treatments.

If your peacock is getting bullied too much turn the lights off do a water change, move all your rocks around, raise the temperature to about 82, and don’t clean your filter of course.

Hope this helps

- Rob