maroon clownfish problem

Question
QUESTION: Hi, I have a 72 gallon bow front tank. I noticed yesterday that my clownfish has a clear spot over his left eye. It is right in his yellow strip. He is still eating and acting normal. The spot is clear and looks like it is growing out of his line. Any help please.

ANSWER: Hi Shawn. Cloudy eyes in a fish is usually associated with poor water quality or toxins in the aquarium. Check all your levels; salinity, pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Any of these at a wrong level should be corrected first and foremost. Make sure you are using only reverse osmosis water or distilled water when doing partial water changes or for top off water. Lots of different toxins can enter your tank through your tap and you really should not use it. If neither of these are the problem then you may want to consider a parasite or disease as the cause of the problem. Marine velvet is sometimes hard to see on the fishes body and having one or both eyes clouded over is a common symptom of this parasite. Take a close look at the skin of the fish. Velvet will give the skin a powdery appearance. You may not see defined spots like you will with ich, which can also cause cloudy eyes. Injury is always another possibility. If your fish is anything like mine then he is probably very territorial and can often injure himself when chasing away another inhabitant of your tank. This can actually lead to some scar tissue forming over the eye to give it a cloudy appearance as well.

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

QUESTION: Thanks for you quick reply. I was not to clear on my description of the problem. He doesn't have a spot over his eye, it is actually above his eye on his body on his first yellow stripe. He is still acting fine, I just want to make sure that he is going to be O.K. Thank you for all of your help.

Answer
Sorry about that. I thought you meant it was on his eye. It could be an injury still. If it looks like a patch of white skin it could also be a bacterial or viral infection. Most of the time if the fishes immune system is kept up by good nutrition and good water quality these will heal up on their own. Keep a close eye on that spot. If it starts to look bumpy it may be due to Lymphocystes , a viral infection that can be contagious and no medication can cure. If it starts to look like the skin is getting worn away starting at this area and going back it could be lateral line disease. This is also viral and no medication can cure. Once again making sure the immune system of the fish is good and water quality is good will help prevent these from getting worse and should start the healing process. Check your pH because too high of a pH will cause the skin to become cloudy as the fish starts to shed its slime coating due to the stress of too high of a pH. A bacterial infection will also cause signs like tattered fins or tail and red streaks on the body or fins. If you start to see any of these symptoms you may want to treat the fish with an antibacterial fish food. These work very well in mild cases and will not destroy your biological filtration. You can make up your own medicated fish food by mixing up a 250 mg capsule of either terramycin, kanamycin or erythromycin in with 1 oz. of dry or frozen fish food. Feed twice daily for 2 weeks even if the fish seems better. You can usually get these antibiotics in most fish supply stores. You may have to read the ingredients to find them. Sorry about the confusion. At least now you know what to do if the fish does developed a cloudy eye!:)