red tail finned shark

Question
has one cloudy eye and appears to have scales missing.  all other fish in tank look finel

Answer
Hi Crystal,
Cloudy eye is usually environmentally related. It can be a bacterial infection but I would definitely lean more towards dirty water conditions (even if the water looks clear, dissolved waste can make fish sick) stress, vitamin deficiencies and injuries to the eye can also trigger cloudiness. An injury could definitely be possible since he has some scales missing. Do you have any other sharks in the tank? There might be some territorial issues going on.

The first thing I'd do is do a 30-50% water change and gravel vacuum. If you can test your water, do so right before your water change. Test for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. If you can't at the moment, just do a water change as a precaution.

Monitor the other fish in the tank in case he is getting picked on. If he is a recent addition, the netting and handling he got at the petstore could definitely account for his injures. Otherwise, the cloudy should eventually go away and the scales will heal and re-grow.

Best of luck~
Karen~