Puffer fish with Puffy eye?

[missjessica]

I had 3 Green Spotted Puffers, in a 48 gallon tank, in the tank with them were some feeders, ghost shrimp, and baby ramshorn snails (last 3 are all feeders). After putting the last 3 feeder fish in, the puffers refused to eat them, and the tank had a horrible outbreak of what appears to be a brown mold on the sides. We have the Lifesaver medicine for the water, as well as Prime for dechlorination, we put that in, cleaned the side walls thoroughly, vacuumed as best we could but some of the mold-stuff is still on the coral/plants we have in there, so I added a few more bigger snails in to help clean up, which they slowly but surely have been. However, last week one of the very healthy, puffers who was eating well and showed no issues, died in the middle of the night. Since then, another one of our fish has been very lethargic, poor eater, and always brown/grey in color, I haven't seen him green in 2 weeks.
The other puffer is lethargic, but still bright green, swimming around fine, eating decently. However, refused to touch feeder fish, shrimp or snails.. I can barely get them to eat their frozen bloodworms.

Recently, one of the puffers has a white poof formed over one of his eyes, with a dark white area in the middle of it. He's completely blind appearing in that eye, and I am almost tempted to say he may be blind in both eyes, as he cant seem to 'see' his food, at all and continuously bumps into everything in his tank. What could this white bubble on his eye be, how can I fix it?

PH - 6.5
No2 - .5
No3 - 160
KH - 20
GH - 180

I also just did a 20% water change hoping it would help

[Pufferpunk]

What is your ammonia? That mold is probably from overfeeding (rotting food). What are you feeding them? How long has this tank been set up?

Your nitrite & nitrate are at toxic levels. You need to do frequent (3x/day) 25% water changes, starting immediately & then 50% daily WC for 3 days after that & test the water daily.

Please read these articles:
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... d-puffers/
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... g/feeders/

[Pufferpunk]

Oh, as far as your subject, the cloudy eye, it will clear uo as soon as the water parameters have improved. Don't use any meds, just add Prime with your WC. And...

[missjessica]

Frozen blood worms every day now, since they don't eat the shrimp/fish/snails anymore. Before, I would suppliment blood worms every 3 days, but they used to gobble down the live food without hassle. Now they wont touch live food at all =( I've had to remove the feeder fish, I leave the snails and shrimp in there for cleanup.

I'm not sure about ammonia level, the only thing I have to check my aquarium are the 5 in 1 test strips. =( I know, bad owner, but I knew nothing about puffers, and the fish store lady recommended them to me and I've done the best I can with them and tried to learn all there is to learn. The only other fish I've ever had were goldfish and neons - so please be gentle on the constructive criticm =)

Also!! I have live plants in there with them, as for what kind, I am not positive, they are very long, almost looks like wide blade grass on steriods. I don't know if that makes a difference...

The cloudy eye is realllly poofed out though, it looks like a shell over the eye.. =(

I did the water change, turned off the filter and drained the water from the bottom (looked the dirtiest) and after refilling the tank, 20 mins of cycling the water through the filter with it on high, then retesting, the levels are now at:
No3 - 60
No1 - 0 (very VERY faint, possibly .1?)
PH - 7.0
KH - 180
GH - 180

I just put the prime in, so I hope all goes well

OH! Also: my tank temperature is 82 degrees.

[spoot]

Prime should be added to the water before or while adding new water. It is a water conditioner that binds chlorine and chloramines, these are toxic to fish.

Get a liquid test kit. Strips are rather inaccurate. Most importantly ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. In a cycled tank with an established bacterial biological filter, the ammonia and nitrite readings should be zero. You should also keep nitrates <10ppm with regular water changes.

If you have access to bio-spira, I would suggest buying some. It will instantly cycle your tank as it contains the live bacteria required. No other product will work, don't let the store try to sell you anything else.

First get your water in order, then everything else will follow.

[Pufferpunk]

If you are seeing dirt in the substrate, do another WC cleaning more of the substrate. You need to get the nitrate down <20 & nitrite to 0. If you don't have a gravel cleaner, use your hand & mix up the substrate thoroughly. The tank will look messy for a little while but you need to get that stuff out. Don't bother testing KH & GH--not that important in FW. Get an API liquid Master Test Kit or purchase seperate ammonia, nitrate, nitrite & pH tests from that company. You also need a hydrometer.

[missjessica]

Great news, after a week of constant water changes, the puffy eye is down, my puffers are swimming happily, and goofily, as always...!

Thanks so much guys!

[By_a_coo]

Heys folks.. is it good for missjessica start to use melafix and epsom salt together to clear her puffer's eyes. I got both for my F8, he has cloudy eyes, and after 5 days, he's looking very healthy. I didn't have to change the salinity for while as people recommended me to do( but I've begun it a few days past). Melafix and epsom salt didn't change any water param (except the KH levels, it's higher, and better ).

And she should keep doing the WC's too.
What do you all think about it?

missjessica - PLEASE try to keep the water as pristine as you can, it was the must for my puffer!!!
BTW, have you got your tank cycled???

[mikeosoft]

She should keep up with the water changes by doing 50% every week minimum. Use the test kits to monitor and make sure you're keeping the nitrate below 20ppm. Ammonia and nitrite should always read 0.

If the water changes are making the eye look better then I wouldn't add any medication. Melafix works pretty well for many applications but it seems unnecessary if the condition is clearing up on its own.

IMO Pufferpunk's advice was spot on.