What's on my Florida Gars eyes?

[Madding]

So this week my anguilla eel sloughed off its slime coat raising alarm bells that something is wrong in my 500g. All the fish are eating and acting normal though. I moved the eel because it was acting half-dead and now it is sitting in another tank now acting 100% normal and looking back to normal.

But now one of my two florida gars has something on its eyes. It is on the outside, not the inside, and looks like a whitish web. I am worried it is some sort of worm or parasite (although no movement or change has been detected). I am stressing over the possibility of it spreading to the other gars.

What is going on here?

I will raise temp and do salt but its tough to maintain salt treatment of a 12 foot footprint.

What else should I be doing? What is this?

 

[jsodwi]

Water changes and salt. You don't feed live right? Or introduced any new fish? Probably not a parasite then. Probably a water quality issue you have a huge bioload.

 

[E_americanus]

thanks for posting the pics as that helps a lot given the previous convo. it does look like some sort of potential physical damage or infection, but i don't think i have encountered infection of this nature before. Richard has noticed eye issues in Cubans before, but that had to do more or less with internal fluid build up and associated pathogens.

this seems like either something is growing on the outside or there has been a tear of the outer membrane somehow. if you have another tank, i would take one out and treat it with salt/temp and see if it improves...if it does, then you will know what to do in your main tank. if it doesn't, it will at least give you a smaller tank to manage/experiment with (can move on to the neosporin treatment and the like). keep us posted, at least if they are eating normally you should be ok for a while--
--solomon

 

[Madding]

Nope, no new fish and no live food. Just tilapia and pellets. I did "treat" the gar to market shrimp last week which was a change, but still it was frozen shrimp meant for human consumption.

I plan on doing some heavy water changes and salt. Hopefully that's all it takes.

Solomon, I just emailed you these photos. Also I noted in the email that it is just this one florida, not others as I thought.

 

[xander]

probably best to wait for Solomon to come in, personally have not idea what it is. perhaps move that florida to a hospital tank to prevent whatever it is spreading? will also probably make treatment easier (with with 12ft footprint n all)

probably an asinine question, but have you tested your water? would deff agree with solomon to seperate and administer controlled treatment rather than trying to manage a 500gal tank.

whatever the case, good luck man.

edit: edited my post after reading your response

 

[Madding]

See above Alex, fired off a post between.

I can try a hospital tank, although all I have available right now are smaller tanks and this gar is about 20-22" long.

 

[E_americanus]

See above Alex, fired off a post between.

I can try a hospital tank, although all I have available right now are smaller tanks and this gar is about 20-22" long.

if possible i would buy a large rubbermaid container to use as a hospital tank then...it will be cheaper than a tank and you can maintain a decent volume. just make sure it is a high-quality rubbermaid container or better...getting the cheap stuff risks leaching of chemicals into the water which can kill gars.

Richard may have more to add on the eye issue too, but for now i would say use the typical precautions and isolate if/when you can. doesn't look to be life-threatening, and gars eyes can take quite a bit and still bounce back.

it may have just scratched the eye and it got a slight infection...especially since it is just the one fish. if there have been no foreign fishes/organisms recently introduced AND water quality has been good then i wouldn't expect it to be parasitic, but it could be bacterial/fungal due to damage.

again, keep us posted, but i am sure the gar will bounce back and be fine--
--solomon

 

[Madding]

Alright, I have a decent sized rubbermaid bin that I've transported 2'+ gars in, also have a small tank that is more wide than your standard >100g tanks although it is empty of water right now.

It's worth noting that it is afflicted in both eyes, not just the one.

It is also worth nothing (maybe) that this gar is over 7 years old (no reason not to believe Mike @ h20), much older than my others in any case.

 

[sbuse]

my large fl has had something like this before. it was following the glass up and down then bumped the drift wood. it was inbetween some branches and freaked out. later i saw the eye deal(mutch like yours, if not the same). i just bumped the temp and added salt, it got better in a few days. i think that yours could have done something similar.

 

[kevinfleming21]

looks more like a corneal scratch to me..