Trigger Fish has "cloudy" eye - please help!

[tabsta]

had this trigger fish since last tuesday, only had lil white spot near eye since friday, but was still ok on saturday. but last nite his eye is all covered in this whitish/cloudy substance.
he's hiding behind the live rock this morning, but still ate food. Came from friends tank (which he was letting die) so probably had something from there already. Any idea how to get rid of this? I don't own a test kit yet, i wasn't meant to have fish in my tank yet, but was emergency (from friends crashing tank)

any ideas - please help

 

[Fishboy-from-NY]

My suggestion is check your parameters and make sure eveything is good. After, get some medication for Cloudy Eyes and treat him. Also, make sure that you continue to feed him & when you do, Buy something called Garlic extreme by seachem and add it to your food just to make sure that all internal parasites are taken care of.

 

[two11devan]

I had a tang that had cloudy eye. I used a half salt water and half fresh water dip with some Formalin 3 medication. I dipped him for about 15 min 3 times over 4-5 day period. Im sure this is not the only way to cure this but it worked very well for me, after my last dip, my tangs eye cleared right up! I didn't have a QT tank at the time so if there is a better way using the QT, I would have gone that route. Dipping requires netting the fish and moving it back and forth. This is very stressfull for the fishand might not be the best way to go, but it worked for me.

 

[Fishboy-from-NY]

Yes, that is a great idea, but I would only do that if its a matter of life or death.

 

[tabsta]

Thanks everyone for your help... my trigger seems to have shown signs of improvement now.
I didn't actually do anything (medication wise) to him, just did a water change, made sure he ate and left him alone (to hide under the rocks as he loves doing). His eye is starting to clear up; according to the LFS its a common thing for triggers and they usually recover on their own. He does have some battle scars from rubbing on the LR and his tails a bit shaggy, but he seems happy and should be ok.
Thanks for the advice though, i'm sure going to need it again one day.

 

[two11devan]

Watch for him rubbing against the rock. Often times, if a fish has a parasite or some other infection, they will "scratch" themselves against the rocks, sand, or anything else in the tank.

 

[tabsta]

all is now well in the tank

Instead of medicine etc I went out last nite and bought myself a blue streak cleaner wrasse... once he got over the fun of swimming through all the live rock holes and exploring the tank - he got straight to work! The trigger is letting him clean him, but the seargant major isn't too keen on the idea and chases him away, then the wrasse just chases him around again... its really funny to watch. Everything is starting to look good in my tank. Found out last nite I have THREE nudybranches and not two as i first thought. Mite have to put some pics up soon.