my angel fish eyes

Question
i have one angel fish that has had a tiny -like whitish ball inside its eye for a long time now and now recently I think the same thing is starting to grow or appear in its other eye. What is this? I believe the one eye is blind because of it. Now, I don't want the other eye infected too.

I recently got a 110 gal tank for about 2.5 months.
I have a hanging filter.
I have recently done a water change.
I am really bad at keeping up with water quality changes.
I have one angelfish and two silver dollar fish.
I have not done any readings since I purchased the tank.

My angel has had that one eye that I believe is blind now for a long time while in an old tank. I guess it acts normal as it floats like any angelfish, but somewhat of staying in one corner for a long time or something.

Please tell me what this is and the treatment for it.

Thank you for your response


Michael  

Answer
Hi Michael,

It's imperative that you test your water immediately for ammonia, nitrite and nitrates.  Knowing this is the key to treatment because until you get a handle on your potential water quality issues, treatment may very well be futile.

You really should be doing 10% water changes weekly and doing a good gravel vacuum once to twice a week as angels are very sensitive to water conditions.  If you aren't good with keeping up with regular maintenance then maybe fishkeeping just isn't for you.  Unfortunately when you don't keep up with the maintenance the fish end up stressed, diseased and even dead and you will waste a lot of money on medications and new fish.

The first step is finding out where you stand with your water parameters.  I can't really advise you on how to fix this without knowing how bad it is because the degree could vary greatly.

The white eye could be a couple of things.  The first that comes to mind is a cataract.  See this page as it has a photo:

http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/cataracts/

This was most certainly caused by off water.  You can try a good anti-fungal anti-biotic, like Mardel's MarOxy.

If it doesn't look like this or the eye is bulging out then it's likely bacterial and should be treated with a broad spectrum anti-biotic that treats both gram-negative and gram-positive.  You can try Mardel's Maracyn/Maracyn II.

It's best to separate the angel and treat him in his own tank if you have a spare that is available.  First reason being that you don't want to treat your silver dollars if they are fine and you don't want to waste a bunch of medication because you would have to dump a truckload into your 110 gallon tank.  A hospital tank can be as simple as a 20-30 gallon rubbermaid with a hang on filter.  I would use some gravel and plants from the main tank to make the angel feel secure, and potentially some of the water, depending on the test results, and treat him that way.  Hold off on all foods for 2-3 days while treating.  Change out 20% of the water daily in the hospital tank while treating as meds degrade in the water.

You will need to keep up on the tank maintenance in the future if you want to prevent the fish from continuing to get ill.  99% of illness is caused by off water.

Good luck : ) April M.