Cichlid eye problem and more

Question
QUESTION: Thanks for response on first two questions, I did water change to remove all meds, Here is more about fish so you can better help me, he is alone in tank so no fighting involved, he got one cloudy eye about amonth agao, i kept changing water it started to look better then I think he injured it or somehting on reocks i removed, it got very bad looking had white things sticking out of it and was pin and whtie with crack in middle, I think he will lose this one, in the meantime the other eye started to go cloudy, this is when i started using all the different meds, he reacted to some and i changed water I keep adding carbon and removing it for each med i used. then noticed tiny white specks on head around areas of problems not exactly on the bad eyes but near his forehead and gills, not many pecks but some, they fall off, then some more next day, this is when i got copper safe, he didnt like it so i had to use jsut less then half amoutn recommended had it in tank one full day and removed it when you told me to do water change, this was used along with marycyn. why would new pecks come in same place if this was Ich? after using coppersafe for even a day? Is it ich? Another thing I noticed that was strange today was after not eating for a week, he was string at osmthing I used net and picked up ten pieces of food pellets , soft, I didtn put them in for him becasue I offer him about 4 a day and wait to see then remove them all every day, the last time he ate was tues and wed and it was about ten pellets, is it at all possible for a fish to hold food undigested in stomach then spew it up? If so could all the med have made this happen? He is acting a little better now with wter change and salt but not eating yet. still had one cloudy eye and one looks like it might be gone, not sure though. I jsut couldnt get all this in one mail as I as so very desparate to see what i can do now to help him. Does he have fungus? bacteria? Ich? oar all threee, if so I cant medicatehim as he gets sicker. Ill watch for reply, I recently moved him from another place 20 minutes away so I didnt have to keep driving to help him, could he still be stressed from the move? He is not new, Have had him for 7 years, Thanks Cathy

ANSWER: Hi Cathy,
  There is no way to figure out what is wrong if you do so many different things to the fish.  You have to do one thing at a time.  

  First, putting in carbon does not "take out the medicine" it only takes out some of the medicine.  Exactly how much is highly variable.  So when you put in a medicine, then put in carbon, then put in a different medicine, now you have an unknown mixture of medicines.   

 If he is a large cichlid, not eating is actually not a big problem. He can weeks without food before starving to death.

 When you say you "changed the water", you should only be changing some of the water, not all the water.  I assume that you are changing 20-25%?  Is that correct?

  Nothing kills ick in one shot no matter what the manufacturer says -- it isn't possible.  Ich takes at least a week to kill.  

  No he could not hold pellet food in his stomach for several days undigested.  More likely he never ate the pellets in the first place, or he spat them up right away.

  Why are you adding salt?   Salt can hurt him as well.

  Yes the move can stress him alot.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I added salst as one of the others told me too, I am so very confused, he is alone in tank and got a cloudy eye one day and i do only change partiel amounts of water but have alot. Someone just told me to get blood worms, i dotn know what to do, he dont look bad only wont eat, and has cloudy eye, the other questiosn were meant for you but someone else asnserred them this is how i got messed up when i kept calling around to pet stores and they would tell me different things do do, does ich fall off? this little stuff hangs on him and falls off, I was told to use pima fix last night and somemore have fallen off. Please help here if possible, i am up every night until 3 am trying to keep an eyey on hiom and reading so much now i am lost. Cathy

Answer
Hi Cathy,
 Ich cannot fall off.  

 Primafix is the equivalent of eating garlic for humans -- it makes people feel good but doesn't likely actually do anything.

 The most important thing is to keep doing the partial water changes.  Since he is alone in the tank (and was alone when he got the eye problem) it couldn't be from being attacked and most likely was from poor water conditions or from a disease introduced some other way (you don't feed him feeder fish I hope).

 The best way to cure a fish disease is to give the fish the best change to fight it himself and good water is the first step towards doing that.

 If he hasn't eaten bloodworms before, then now is not the time to start feeding him a new food.  You want to feed him the food that he is most used to and likely to eat.  

 What size is the fish?  And for that matter, what kind is he?

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>