Discus eyes look almost human

[JackBlasto]

One of my discus has eyes that are large (I realize is supposed to be a sign of malnutrition?) I have fed him frozen blood worms along with the other 3 discus in the tank for a year now when I got them. All the other Discus eyes are "normal" and tiny round. Any ideas what is happening here or is this natural? His eyes compared to the others seem almost like "human" eyes where the others do not. Just curious as it seems strange.

 

[Mebbid]

Blood worms are the nutritional equivalent of potato chips. I would suggest giving them some variance to their diet skipping the blood worms and mixing it up with a few different types of food throughout the week.

 

[treemanone2003]

Blood worms are the nutritional equivalent of potato chips. I would suggest giving them some variance to their diet skipping the blood worms and mixing it up with a few different types of food throughout the week.

+1. They should be eating a well balanced mix of beefheart, brine shrimp black worms and then some blood worms here and there.

 

[treemanone2003]

One of my discus has eyes that are large (I realize is supposed to be a sign of malnutrition?) I have fed him frozen blood worms along with the other 3 discus in the tank for a year now when I got them. All the other Discus eyes are "normal" and tiny round. Any ideas what is happening here or is this natural? His eyes compared to the others seem almost like "human" eyes where the others do not. Just curious as it seems strange.

Large eyes is generally not a sign of malnutrition but could point to one or two or three other things. The first being stunting. Could you give a rough idea of the age of the fish, and how long you've had it ? How many others are in the tank with this one, did it come at the same time as the others, and did you QT before introducing all of them if they came separately ? What other stock is in the tank and when did they arrive ? Could you supply a head on shot of this one ? What are your tank parameters and what testing method are you using ?

Now for part 2. Unfortunately it looks as though it may be Popeye ( bacterial ) and if caught soon enough, can be treated and the fish will survive. If not soon enough, it will probably ( sorry ) kill the fish. This result is because the bacteria has been able to settle in so deeply into the fish, it's basically unstoppable. It's not that the antibiotics won't help, it's that you'd need to treat for so long that it may require such a prolonged treatment period, the fish would succumb to being so weak. This is a bacterial infection that has had best results using kanamycin as the bottle states. It should be placed into a hospital tank ASAP,
and treated there.

The other possibility is that it could be cloudy eye ( savable condition ) and the best treatment would be lots of large volume and WC's and a good clean tank. What is your current WC schedule now ?

hth and just ask if you have more questions.

 

[JackBlasto]

Wow. I wish the store would have told me this a year ago. They acted like blood worms were Gods great gift and ONLY thing needed AND they are a discus specialty store! Man, I feel really bummed out that I have done this. I mean I keep meticulous care of water conditions and for their diet to have not been what was good to keep them healthy I am very disappointed in myself. Well, I guess beef heart starts NOW. I hope this can be remedied to some extent.

 

[JackBlasto]

Water changes are daily on that tank. The fish have been in there over a year. All doing well but the one and all bought the same time a year ago. No other fish have been introduced. Its really been a tight tank as far as all parameters. 4 discus. 120 gallon tank.

 

[treemanone2003]

Wow. I wish the store would have told me this a year ago. They acted like blood worms were Gods great gift and ONLY thing needed AND they are a discus specialty store! Man, I feel really bummed out that I have done this. I mean I keep meticulous care of water conditions and for their diet to have not been what was good to keep them healthy I am very disappointed in myself. Well, I guess beef heart starts NOW. I hope this can be remedied to some extent.

Don't get all bummed out. It happens. I feel that ( and a lifelong friend has explained ) that they do this in front of customers to "show" that the fish eat. What they don't show is when the doors are closed, they feed a mix of the above items I mentioned. It may take some time to switch them over so be patient.

 

[treemanone2003]

Water changes are daily on that tank. The fish have been in there over a year. All doing well but the one and all bought the same time a year ago. No other fish have been introduced. Its really been a tight tank as far as all parameters. 4 discus. 120 gallon tank.

With these conditions, you may just be looking at cloudy eye and not Popeye since the tank has stayed the same. Now knowing there's only 4 it may have been an injury due to some aggression. Sounds like a beautiful tank you've got set up. Once this gets settled, I would suggest adding more as they do best in groups of at least 5 or more.

I would try to call the store and see where (supplier) they got them. When adding new ones, you should never mix different "types". Stendkers, Asians, Wattleys etc. If they tell you, you may be able to buy from their supplier directly.