Cloudy eyes on a red oscar

[travelinman1969]

I have a Female Red Oscar that has a cloudy spot on each eye that is over the pupil. It is not covering her entire pupil so she is able to see but she appears to be losing her appitite and she doesn't swim to me when I walk to the tank like she used to. I have 3 other oscars, an arowana, 2 BIG plecos, and 2 bala sharks in with her and they have no problems. They are in a 150 gal. tank with plenty of filtration. She has a spot on her right side that has no scales from when she was a baby and hasn't gone away. Not sure if this makes her more prone to diseases or not. She's swimming around fine. Just not eating and not the typical oscar personality. Any help would be appreciated.

[Harry Tolen]

Did a little reading and came up with the following possibilities:

01. Vitamin deficiency. Specifically B2. Can lead to all the symptoms you are talking about. Solution here is to feed a more varied diet, or get some supplements.

02. Eye flukes. Extremely unlikely, because this parasite has a complex life cycle that requires conditions which cannot exist in an aquarium. If it is this it will just go away on its own.

03. Bacterial infection of damaged lens. Fish's immune system will take care of this on it's own also, if water conditions are good enough. You might want to check all parameters and up water changes a bit just as a precautionary measure (although your tank is a large one, you have a lot of bioload in there, and simple filtration will not compensate for this problem in terms of organic pollutant buildup).

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[travelinman1969]

The only problem with the supplements is anything I put in the tank the other fish get before she gets to it. Pigs!!!! LOL I've been tryin to keep up with the water changes, but the water here is so bad I can't use it in my tank. I have to buy bottled water from WAL-MART. 50 gallon changes aren't cheap. Been a couple of weeks so I'll give it a try today. Any idea on how long it will take to clear? Does the scaleless part on her body make her more prone to these kinds of things? Seems it would.

[peifc]

I think if you get the PURwater system is cheaper than getting spring water from wal-mart :eek:

[Harry Tolen]

So what is it about your water that's so bad? Depending on the problem(s), I can think of several low-cost solutions that would be cheaper than buying water by the gallon at Wal-mart. Also a heck of a lot more convenient.

If this means you haven't been doing 30% water changes weekly, that could be a significant part of your problem right there.

[travelinman1969]

When I first started the tank I could not get the ph to come down and the hardness was through the roof, even with a water softner. I spent hundreds with no results, so I finally just went with the bottled water. I even tried the water purifiers but was spending $10 for each cartrige and each cartrige was only getting me 10 gallons. And they tell us this stuff is safe to drink. LOL Gonna call Culligan and see what they can do.

[Harry Tolen]

If you mean you were using a home water softener, then you were merely exchanging sodium ions for the calcium and magnesium ions in the water, which doesn't do any good. If you were spending "hundreds" on water softening, then you should just buy a reverse osmosis system (which removes all minerals from the water) and then use it 50/50 with your tapwater when making changes. You can find a good one relatively inexpensively at one of the on-line retailers, such as Drs. Foster and Smith or Big Al's.

Since you should be doing large water changes on that tank (oscars and plecos are very messy), you are either spending $30/week on bottled water, or your water quality is deteriorating steadily, which is probably the cause of your oscar's problem and will begin to affect the other fish soon as well (fish succumb to water quality problems at different rates, based on their own individual immune systems).

Here is a link to an article that explains all about water chemistry and how to manage a high hardness situation:

http://faq.thekrib.com/begin-chem.html

[travelinman1969]

Thanks for the info Harry. I'm printing it out now. I did the change and it seems to have cleared her eyes. She's still not eating as well as I would like to see, but I'm sure she will come around. How much do you know about arowanas? Over the last couple of days the back of it's (not sure if it's a he or she) gills have started to flare out. They're not laying flat against the body like they should. Thinking this may be due to the same issue but not sure.

Going back to the purifier, I was told I should get 25 to 50 gallons per cartridge but I was only getting 10. I'm a bit leary on putting so much as one drop of that crap in my tank. That's why I changed over to bottled water. I'll check out some of the sites you suggested and we'll see what I find. And yes it's about $30 per change. Thanks again.

[Harry Tolen]

When you refer to a water "purifier" that delivers a certain number of gallons per cartridge, I don't think you are thinking about a reverse osmosis system. Those systems are designed to process a lot more water before the membranes have to be cleaned or replaced, and the systems themselves are rated in numbers of gallons per day. Basically, an R/O system forces the water through a fine membrane under pressure, catching all of the minerals in the membrane and thus producing effectively demineralized water. That water cannot be used alone in a tank, but can be mixed with your regular source water in varying percentages to get a blend that is good for your fish.

This is the best way to be able to make frequent, large water changes and still have water with a lower GH and KH content. I think this will really help your fish in the long run.

Mind you, I don't know if your fishes' problems are coming from the minerals in your water or from the fact that your concerns about your tapwater have led you to make fewer and smaller water changes than you should. But buy an R/O system and use it as suggested above, and you will be addressing both potential problems at the same time.

Good luck.