Cloudy Eye after feeding Blood worms

[rlghouston]

Seem to be having a problem with cloudy eye (one discus had heavy slime over gills/forehead) after feeding frozen blood worm cubes. Has anyone had this problem before. Have tried it now 3 times..everytime I feed the bloodworms my discus develope cloudy eye..some get heavy slime layer over forehead area. This has occured even with Binox in the water.
Any ideas, of course besides no using the blood worms, They are a MAJOR brand name used thru out the hobby.

[seanyuki]

Perhaps it;s the water quality in yr tank and try doing a 100% water changes for the next few days b4 adding any sort of meds......I also feed FBW these days and they never got cloudy eyes.

[April]

Check your ph. Maybe it's crashing or ammonia also will do it. Maybe your overfeeding and water quality is going down after food added to the tank. Do a big wc for a few days and see how it goes.

[Suryadi]

why you do not want to stop feeding bloodworm even after you have noticed and conclude that it is the culprit of the problem. If i were you, I will just stop feeding BW and end the headache

[Skip]

when/how often do you do water changes.. what percent to you pull out?

[rlghouston]

I have tried your suggestions of increasing W/C's, note I normally do two per week on the 55 gal . now do three per week so far no improvement noted. Take water level down to about 2 -3 inches, fish are on their sides. As for as feeding the branded bw's, that has stopped after this last problem. Some new/additional information: No3-0;No2-0.5;GH-150;chlorine-0;KH-120;Ph-7.8; temp-84degrees. Additionl observations: a small white half moon shape is first indication of eye problem. within 24hrs half moon becomes a full circle which fills-in looking like regular cloudy eye. In 36 hours whole eye is thick white. Appears to go down to iris. Thought binox was making a differece. NOT so now. Tested water from tank in new tank with clown loach, loach lasted about 3 days then, on fouth day found dead...very stiff heavy slime white, flakey and slight sandy appearence. also when removing with net noticed slime came off in flakey sheets. never seen this before.

[TURQ64]

You have some serious water quality issues, whether it's the local supplier or whatever.....Best be checking all perameters and and finding the real culprit..sounds like either ammonia or cloramine, or perhaps a minor culprit, but unless they are ancient, it's not the FBW's...Gary

[strawberryblonde]

You said your NO2 is .5ppm, right?

In that case, something has happened to your bio-media. Either you don't have enough to handle the amount of fish wastes, or something has killed it off.

Soooooo...here goes:

1) What type of filtration are you using and how long has it been used in this tank?
2) Have you recently cleaned the filtration system and if so, how did you clean it?
3) What type of tank do you have? Barebottom, substrated, or substrate with plants?

Next round of questions:
1) How long has the tank been up and running?
2) How many discus are in the tank and how large are they?
3) What other types of fish are in the tank and how many are there?

Knowing the answers to those questions will help in figuring out what's going wrong in your tank.

[rlghouston]

You said your NO2 is .5ppm, right?

In that case, something has happened to your bio-media. Either you don't have enough to handle the amount of fish wastes, or something has killed it off.

Soooooo...here goes:

1) What type of filtration are you using and how long has it been used in this tank?
2) Have you recently cleaned the filtration system and if so, how did you clean it?
3) What type of tank do you have? Barebottom, substrated, or substrate with plants?


Next round of questions:
1) How long has the tank been up and running?
2) How many discus are in the tank and how large are they?
3) What other types of fish are in the tank and how many are there?


Knowing the answers to those questions will help in figuring out what's going wrong in your tank.

1. Hydro IV and V sponge filters, plus Lee Large 3 way corner filters for particle removal.
2. 1 month ago, normal squeeze out in old tank water.
3. barebottom 2 plants in containers.



1. this tank over a year, moved from bottom of double stand to top position, with all equipment from prior position.
2. 5 adults, 1-3"subadult.
3. no other fish.

[rlghouston]

here is a picture of the 3inch super red checkerboard starting to develope the ring in the eye. it fills in after a day. she is fine now. the other adults now all have at least one eye envolved each.

cloud ring in eye 0013_resize.jpg

[roundfishross]

looks like ph burn to me

[April]

I'd say the bloodworms were off. They will cause huge ammonia spike if they had ever been thawed and refrozen.guaranteed white eyes from an ammonia spike.

[rlghouston]

While I can't be sure about the frozen blood worms having been thawed and refrozen at or during shippment to the LFS. It is a very good possiblity. I have seen in some LFS where the frozen foods can be seen to have reflowed in the package and been refrozen and offered for sale. Increased ammonia problems I would think would effect all the fish not just afew or one at a time.

I have recently found out something is going on with the water in my town, Ph crashes after about 24hrs. as low as 3.5! we have been having some heavy rains past few weeks and I think water dept is adding something new. for years I could use the tap water with out worry of the Ph changing. After reading roundfishross reply I started looking into what the ph was and how long it stays at that level. It drops like crazy in one day. Now using African Cichlid Mix (gravel) in a large Lee brand corner filter to raise ph slowly and hold it. this currenly after 24hrs has the 55 at a ph of 6.3 - 6.5. discus are much happier.


thanks to all who tried to help!

[roundfishross]

yep ph crashes will cause the eye cloud for sure! this may be the same thing the amonia spike causes. I toss in a bag of crushed coral into my sumps or power filters to keep this from happening.

Glad to see them on the right track!!!

leo