Rescue in the works, question about angels' eye, help if you can.

[PDRed302]

While visiting the lfs today I came across 3 large Angelfish (a half black and a pair of marbles’ all about 4 to 5 inches around). Someone had brought them in for a trade in and while I think they are gorgeous, they all have a bit of eye glazing. Hopefully my rescue mission works out. And they’ll clear up here in the next week or two. I just have them in my SA tank now, not treating anyone, just keeping up with my normal water changes and cleanings. (Is this the right path for them?) If not please advise, I keep sa/ca cichlids so I am no stranger to tank husbandry.

The question here though is: The half black seems to have a pretty serious eye problem that I didn’t see when I picked him up. Not only does he have a bit of glazing on one of his eyes, it looks pretty rough and there appears to be a very small pin hole in the middle of the pupil. (Anyone know what the problem here is?)

I have moved the injured angel over to a quarantine tank and begun to add melafix and primafix, and will perform a 30 to 50% daily water change and dosage. (Is there anything else I can do here?)

Has anyone had to deal with this same issue before? If so how did you deal with it? How did it turn out for you?

Thanks for reading/responses.

Attached is a pic of the eye in question on the half black (at least that’s what I believe he is) sorry the picture is a little crappy; I snapped it on my phone.

 

[lipadj46]

that is from living in dirty water. To clear it up QT them and do near 100% daily water changes with 1tbs of salt per 10 gallons. It should clear up in a week or 2. If they start to slip and the fins start to deteriorate and such have some kanamyacin or furan2/bifuran on hand to treat. Also a KMnO4 or methylene blue baths could not hurt.

 

[barracuda123]

that is from living in dirty water. To clear it up QT them and do near 100% daily water changes with 1tbs of salt per 10 gallons. It should clear up in a week or 2. If they start to slip and the fins start to deteriorate and such have some kanamyacin or furan2/bifuran on hand to treat. Also a KMnO4 or methylene blue baths could not hurt.

100% W/C changes daily would kill them. Do 50% at most

 

[lipadj46]

100% W/C changes daily would kill them. Do 50% at most

That is ridiculous and seems to be a misconception that is ripe around here (due to a vocal few). So every discus breeder and hobbiest that grows huge healthy show specimens doing twice daily 100% water changes are killing their fish? Silly, show me the proof then. My evidence are my discus and angel that get daily 100% water changes are not dead.

 

[PDRed302]

The two that are in my large tank have cleared up and are free swiming and eating heavy now. The one in question is in the hospital tank and is getting a daily melafix/primafix along with a large water change. He seems to be ok minus the hole in his pupil but the cloudyness has pretty much gone away. He is also responding to me on his bad side and seems to be moving his eye around watching me, so for the time being I am going to assume that he is not blind in his bad eye.

Will update when conditions change, thanks for the comments and responses.

 

[PDRed302]

Ok, so while doing the water change and meds tonight I noticed that the Angel's eye hald almost completly cleared up but the pin hole is very noticeable now. Is this a major concern? Out of all the years and all the fish I have kept so far I have never seen a hole in the eye before. Is this treatable? Is it life threatening? I just want to be sure so I don't end up with a dead fish in the long run. I do have a few days to take him back but figured I would keep him at home and heal him up if I could; it was a rescue mission after all.

 

[lipadj46]

I've seen that with angels, discus and other fish, It will heal up with clean water even if it is blind in one eye its not a big deal (it would be cloudy permanently though), I would drop the pimafix and melafix though and just add some salt at 1 tbs per 10 gallons or even just clean water at this point.

 

[PDRed302]

Dropped the meds as suggested above. Took the pic I had of him in to the lfs (not a petco/petsmart) the owner told me that this is nothing to worry about and that the fish would be fine. He also mentioned to drop the meds and just keep the water clean. He also went ahead and gave me another angel because of the trouble I went through to bring him a pic (that was nice). The new angel looks very healthy but I will have to grow him out, he's pretty small.

Thanks for the advice on the subject!

 

[barracuda123]

That is ridiculous and seems to be a misconception that is ripe around here (due to a vocal few). So every discus breeder and hobbiest that grows huge healthy show specimens doing twice daily 100% water changes are killing their fish? Silly, show me the proof then. My evidence are my discus and angel that get daily 100% water changes are not dead.

what about BB? (beneficial bacteria)

 

[lipadj46]

what about BB? (beneficial bacteria)

What about them? They don't live in the water column and freshwater will not harm them. The fish will still be producing ammonia to feed them. If your tap water is that bad (after dechloring or aging it) that it will kill fish or bacteria you probably should not be drinking it let alone using it in a fish tank.