DISCUS CLOUDY EYES

Why my discus has cloudy eye?

Discus fish are like any other aquarium tropical fish. They are susceptible to eye fungus disease, also Know as cloudy eye. It is cause by environment issue, if untreated, discus fish will be blind. The cause is a bacterial build up in the aquarium, Poor water quality, high levels of ammonia, unstable Nitrite levels in the water, drug interactions, high levels of chlorine or chloramine, fluctuation in water temperature, pH shock, water conditioners, high TDS levels, stress and dietary deficiency – Lack of vitamin A.
- How bacterial build up :
+ Over feeding so the degradable food spoils water. Specially fresh food or frozen food such as bloodworm, black worm, beef heart...etc spoils water faster than dry food.
+ Bad filtration system or not consistently cleaning filter.
+ Less water change or not changing water
+ Not enough good bacterial to fight bad bacterial.
- Symptom :
+Slightly foggy eye.
+Blistered eye.
+Almost white-eye.
+Loss of Appetite.
+Bursting out of the eye.

- How to treat discus cloudy eyes:
First : You need to move the sick discus fish to a hospital tank. We recommend you use a 10, 15 or 20 gallon tank so you can use less medications, and save you some money also make the heavy work on water change be more easier.
Second : turn off all filter, remove all filter's carbon and increasing oxygen for the water by adding air stone. Oxygen is an important factor of healing sick discus. Keep tank around 84 to 86F (29-30 C)
Third : Treat with Epsom salt, Natural Sea salt or Aquarium salt ( Remember 1 to 2 tablespoons for every 10 gallons of aquarium water) and a lot of water change. Please do it everyday if possible. PH maybe lowered to 6.0, this sometimes helps. You can also use "Paraguard" with dosage of 5ml for every 10 gallon for 24 hours then do water change 50% and apply 1/2 dosage then keeping doing this step until your discus get back to normal. This way works for early stages but if your discus get a bad stage then you have to treat with medication in next step.
Fourth : Treat with antibiotics( only apply this step if fish in bad stage)
This is what we have done and it works perfectly for our fish farm and this is base on our experience, we are not guaranty on your fish or replace for any advise from doctor. This is just an option and you make your own decision about this step. Acriflavine or Methylene blue sometimes helps (undergrasser1989).
- Get some Tetracycline or doxycycline(500 mg) or nitrofurazone or erythromycin. Depending on which type you get. you can use 2 Capsule(for 20 gallons tank, 500mg/10 gallons) pore into a water container, stirring until the medication dissolve in water then dump it into your hospital tank. After 24 hours, do 50 % water change then add 1 more pill and 2 tea spoon Epsom salt. After another 24 hours, do 50% water change then add 2 tea spoon Epsom salt. don't add any more medication if your discus eye is back to normal other wise keep doing this step until your fishes healing. Normally, it takes us 3-4 days.

This is base on our experience for many years keeping discus and it works for our fish. We only recommend this technique to anyone buying fish from Texas Aquatic only. We are not guaranty on any other fish course