The Puffer Forum

I have two F8's in a 30g with a fluval 404. All readings are good...nitrite,nitrate, amonia everything is good to go. They are eating great, very active. Now one of them is getting a hazy looking eye...whats the deal and how do i deal with it.
thanks in advance
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Whats your water change schedual like, and are they in FW or brackish water? Opportunistic infection after he bumped into something is most likely, infections of various sorts are one of the things much less likely with F8's in brackish, thats why I ask. I'd add some melafix and wait, if it doens'nt look very badly infected.

crap my last post didnt go through. so round two.
they are in FW since they came from FW at the lfs. I was planning on making the transition starting next week. Also i was wanting to put a "clean up crew" in there but the dominant one seems to kill anything that attempts to move except the other puffer. I've read mix ideas on how they do with others in the tank. Do you have any suggestions on that situation? Thanks
P

Oh yeah the water change. I've been cleaning up whats left after feeding at least once a day and adding water as needed but the tank is very clear, stable and the levels are good to go. They have only been in there for a few couple of weeks. I haven't been to concerned about doing the 25% since i'm running such a strong filter and cleaning up behind them consistently. Is that a bad mindset to be in?
P

No matter what filter you have, you MUST do waterchanges. The filter will assist in carifying the water, as well as converting ammonia to nitrate, but the filter does nothing for removing nitrates. The only effective way to remove nitrates is though water changes (unless you have a heavily planted tank, and even still, you need to do WC's).

When you say "everything is good to go" what do you mean? You should provide the exact readings because "good to go" to you, may mean something completely different to someone else.

I would go do a 50% waterchange and then monitor the fish. If it's only a single eye then its probably just a minor injury. Keep the water clean and watch the eye closely.

I over-filter all my tanks and do at least 50% WC's every week.

as of yesterday:
amonia=0
nitrite=0
nitrate=0
ph=7.5

I'll do a water change after work. should i let it run it's course or medicate him? He's still eating like a beast.

Clean up crew aren't really needed in tanks unless there are areas a dead fish could end up where you can't pick it out, like in reef tanks. Anything that might serve the purpose in brackish(crabs, shrimp) are pufferfood.

How is the fish doing? Is the eye any better yet?