Tinfoil barb: eye problem

[seds]

My smallest tinfoil barb has a white scratch on his(her) eye and it hasn't healed for months. It kind of looks shiny and hollow when you look at it at the right angle under bright light. The iris is blotched with darker golden spots, and there is a bit of cloudy whiteness surrounding the scratches. The other eye is perfect.

This barb gets less food than the others so it's the smallest. Poor fellow also jumped and hit it's nose very hard when it was about 1 inch. (I figured his skull would return to it's original shape) He is about 20 months old and 6 or seven inches. I have never really measured them though.

The others are about 2 inches longer than it.

Is it a cataract or eye cloud?

72 gallon STOCKING LIST: 4 tinfoil barbs // 4 upside down catfish (nigriventris not asian) 1 unidentified snail

Maintenance: 1 40% change per week

Temperature: 78 degrees.

There is a bit of java moss too if that makes a difference. PH is about 7.6, straight from the faucet.

 

[seds]

OH PS: I don't have a test kit except ammonia, I could bring my water in to the LFS next time I go down and see what the nitrates are at. I ran out of conditioner so I got to get some more.

I lost my nitrate test kit.

 

[seds]

He died...


Not... But he could have and no one helped. I even put a pic. Ignore the triple post... I blame the "no editing after 15 minutes" policy.
After further research I found eye cloud and a cataract are similar/the same and the treatment is lots of changes and I have 2 questions.


1. How does one go about aging water? My tank is kind of big and I go through lots of conditioner. It costs like 9$ a bottle. I have left a large tub for 24 hours. Is that long enough to get rid of chlorine?


2. Will my java moss get shocked by the constant changes in water chemistry? It is not that big a deal if I have to buy more but I'd rather not.





I hope I can fix my barb's eye before it's too late.

 

[PrecisionAquatics]

As far as aging water, 24 hrs is plenty if your water treatment plant uses just free chlorine to disinfect, it will dissapate. However if they are using chloramines 24 hrs wont do it, you will have to use a chemical remover.
P.S. chloramines are generated by mixing a small amount of ammonia (.5-1ppm) with chlorine... so logic leads me to believe if you test for ammonia in water that has come directly from you tap you may be able to determine which method of disinfection is being used. If not just call your water co. Good Luck