Hi All,

Our Oscar Keif (about 10 months old), has developed bleeding, cloudy eyes. We first thought he had bumped into something as he is very skittish, and clumsy. We have now taken anything sharp out of the tank but today his other eye has started to bleed too.

We have put melafix in the tank, and do regular water changes. He has also been moody for the last 2 months, and has not been his usual self, and has gone off his food (we have even given him feeder fish but he appears to have made friends with them). Pet shops cant seem to tell us anything. Can someone help please, we dont want him to die.

Thanks Heaps, Cal and Meg.

too much nitrogen can cause eye bulging...so better check the nitrite and
nitrate... other cause is bacterial infection...

sometimes epsom salt help relieve some fluids in the eyes... but need to
know first the water params??? ammonia; nitrite; nitrate; pH; and temp.

When you say regular water changes, how often and how much do you change?

How big is the aquarium?

Does it have tankmates?

What dechlorinator do you use?

Do you have any means of testing your water - such as a liquid test kit or some test strips? (If no, I'd strongly suggest getting a liquid test kit, the strips are inaccurate but will give us some vague idea. If yes, please post your results on here)

Cloudy eye is almost exclusively caused by poor water conditions, so I would venture a premature guess that that's it. Luckily, it is more often than not completely cureable - please answer the questions, and all should be well - at least, we will be able to give you some idea of what to do for your fish to help it

His eyes are not bulging at all, just bleeding and cloudy.

GH: 10
KH: 80
PH: 6.5
N02:0.5
N03:Between 0 and 20.

Temp: 30 degrees Celsius
Tank size: 90Litres
Fish size - about 4 or 5 inches
Also, he is an albino tiger

Thanks

water change about 30 litres weekly. Has a pleco in with him, and now feeder fish since he didnt eat them. We quarantined them before putting them in the tank.

alright - that solves it. You're using the tetra test strips, yes? That means your numbers are probably double or triple what the strip is saying.

You want NO2 and NH4/NH3 (I know you don't have a reading for this) to be at zero. That it isn't at zero says your filters are not keeping up with your bioload.

The other thing is that plecos make a LOT of waste.

Basically, you have really high nitrates, and probably a broken cycle. Start changing half your water every day. That will get it healing.

Then, you really, really need a bigger tank. The Oscar needs about 200 liters to itself. The pleco, that can grow to be two feet long if it's a common one. If you want to keep both fish you're looking in the order of a 400 liter aquarium. It's not as big as it sounds, trust me

You should rehome the feeder fish, they're adding bioload that is just making things worse.

You didn't say what water conditioner you're using - is it tetra aquasafe? I swear by that stuff, but seachem prime is more appropriate to what you need for now - it detoxifies ammonia and nitrites as well as dechlorinating (wonderful stuff).

G'day,
thanks to my girlfriend for posting this thread.

the test strips we are using are API - 5 in 1 Aquarium Test Strips.

we dont have a pleco with the oscar, its just a 7cm-ish Bristle-nosed catfish.

we have a 3 foot tank available, just nothing to put it on and are sourcing a stand and hood for it this weekend. then its a case of where to put it!

the feeder fish are currently 9 guppies.

the water conditioner we are using is Aqua One - Water Conditioner. says it neutralizes chlorine, chloramine and heavy metals.

we picked up a bottle of Nutrafin - Cycle this weekend just gone. would it be a good idea to add it after the daily water changes?

Cheers
lester

I don't think the nutrafin cycle will do much of anything. Very few bacteria in a bottle things actually work.

Aquaone is just fine, and will do the trick nicely.

The test strips are still bad, unfortunately (I figured they were tetra because that list of information is exactly what the tetra strips show you as well). You can see by your fish that things are not right with your water.

A 3 foot tank is still too small for an Oscar long term, but for right now, get him better first. A smaller tank is easier to do the water changes in.

Glad to hear it's not a common pleco, bristle nosed are a much better prospect. I'd still recommend 250-300 liters for the pleco and the oscar for a longer term house. This tank would need to be four feet long (120 cms) to give your fish some swim room.

As your oscar feels better he may or may not eat the guppies.

hope to hear that this fish is doing better soon!

thanks for the help, will start changing water straight away.

ok so u got it that for how ... ummm welcome to the site ??