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eye film

1K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  borohands8593 
#1 ·
Hey guys I just got back from a vacation where I hadnt been able to do a WC for a few weeks. To try and catch up I removed all fish from the tank to redo all the rockwork( afraid they might get crushed) and did a 70% WC. WAAAAAAY to much as it stressed them out and I lost I believe 7 of my 8 paracyprichromis nigripinnis :( .

My 6 petricola 2 calvus 3 tetras 2 bristlenose plecos and 2 rainbows handled it just fine, but my cyprichromis leptosoma unita seemed to get some sort of disease.

After about 24 hours I noticed a white film appearing on 3 of their eyes. It was almost like a hazy covering that projected outward to a point. On one of the females there also seemed to be some sort of patch on her side that looks mostly like bulging scales, could be injury or something brewing underneath??

I immediately removed purigen from my filter and begun treatment with quikcure (formalin and malachite green) and pimafix. After 48 hours of treatment I see a great reduction on every eyefilm to the point where it looks to be almost gone. The females side does not appear to be bulging anymore and looks to be healing. Im thinking it might have been an opportunistic bacteria infection of which is being affecting treated with the medications I am adding. There is still a very slight haze one 1 or 2 of the fishes eyes( it seems to have also only affecting one eye per fish and not both) .

I was wondering how long should I continue treatment at full streagth and when should I do water changes. Also should I be adding anything else to the water like melafix or jungle buddies( i believe thats a fungus cure??) I want to make sure I totally get rid of anything bad in the tank and dont allow any secondary infections to occur. Also, how long do I need to wait until I can consider everything to be safe and in the clear?
 
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#2 ·
Hi,

here's what might have happened.

Without regular water changes the ph in your tank drops. (How fast and how much it drops is dependant on a number of things). Your fish don't stress or notice the lower ph because it has been a gradual change. At this lower ph any ammonia in the tank will be converted to a form that is not toxic to your fish.
So far, no problem.

But here's where the fish die: When you do a water change after not having done a water change for 'awhile' the new water raises the PH and any ammonia is converted back to the toxic form--fast and that's what kills/stresses your fish. The larger the water change the worse it will be.

Your remaining fish were likely very stressed from the ammonia burn and this defintitely would have made them more susceptible to various bacteria that normally reside harmlessly in your tank.

So for now I wouldn't use any more meds. I would finish up with the quikcure and then for the next several weeks do frequent partial water changes of 25-30% using a good quality dechlorinator. (Frequent: every other day--2x/week).
With the proper diet and perfect water conditions they should recover however if it was an ammonia burn they may always be somewhat more susceptible to illness.
You can't kill all the possibly harmfull bacteria/fungus in your tanks but you can keep your fish as strong and healthy as possible so that they avoid being overwelmed by them.

Give the tank a few weeks-to a month to recover and then if all seems well, fish are eating and swimming normally and free of any fungal or bacterial growth then you can go shopping for more fish. :)

Robin
 
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