Fungus on eye

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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Archaeopath
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Fungus on eye

Post by Archaeopath »

Hi,

my GSP has suddenly developed fungus on one eye - virtually overnight. The only new things in the tank are the snails I've given him. He's had no new plants recently, and obviously no tank mates. I'm treating with Protozin, but it's looking really nasty. Other than that he's swimming fine and still has a good appetite.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
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Post by Pufferpunk »

Very common for GSPs to get this. forget the meds--just give him pristene water (50% water changes weekly) & add Melafix. That'll clear it right up. Is he in brackish?
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Archaeopath
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Post by Archaeopath »

Yeah, I've been slowly changing him to brackish (dunno if you remember Diddy). I kinda got into a habit of regular water changes, so his water's spotless at all times anyway - hence I was confused why he'd got this. Glad it's common and treatable - will add melafix instead then. Thanks
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Post by ChesapeakeSwellfish »

I wonder why this seems disproportionally common among GSPs despite clean tanks and regular water changes. Any thoughts to injuries from the "up 'n down dance" becoming infected ? It would be very easy to abrade eye tissue against the tank glass.

Perhaps we should check for correlation between this behavior and this injury/infection.
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Post by Pufferpunk »

I found if I was even slightly lax on WC, it wouldn't fail to happen to 1 of my GSPs.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Post by ChesapeakeSwellfish »

One more reason for large weekly water changes.

Every now & then, I'll be reading one of my old aquarium books and the author will write about changing 10% every 4 to 6 weeks. AND keep 20 fish in a 10 gallon tank...
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Post by Archaeopath »

This is exactly why I don't understand how he's got it. He has minimum 50% water changes per week, usually more.
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Pufferpunk
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T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
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C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
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Post by Pufferpunk »

I've still read that this is a common occurrence in this species. Don't blame yourself.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Post by Archaeopath »

Thanks PP. Erm, does this make sense? Today it's kinda fallen off
lisalisa

Post by lisalisa »

The eye? or the fungus?
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Post by Archaeopath »

oops, sorry, the fungus, not the eye
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Post by saffib »

:lol: Oh sorry but can I just congratulate you both on cheering me up today! I'm sitting at work, surreptitiously browsing and I come across this and (knowing his eye didn't fall off) pictured it falling off!
Cheers for the giggle! :wink:

...oh, and glad to hear that the fungus seems to have cleared up...if that'sd what you meant? :?
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Post by ceylon »

Have to agree with Saffib .....

Not having a great day, but couldn't help but laugh when I saw LL's comment!! :lol:
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Post by Archaeopath »

Update: The fungus may have disappeared, but now he's bumping into things, swimming around in a stupor. I've read a few threads on here, asking if their puffer's gone blind. He's swimming almost as if stoned, crashing into the plants, thermometer etc then carrying on as if nothing's happened.

ETA: he's definitely not seeing well, not responding to me or my hand near the tank. Is blindness common? A result of the fungus?

ETA #2: out of the blue, he's just puffed. First time I've ever seen him do that. I've followed the articles on de-puffing and he seems to have deflated now, but he really must be stressed. I was just sat here watching him in the dark with just my desk lamp on and whoomph, he puffed.
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