All my fish are getting blind, please help!

[adinona]

Hello everyone,

All my fish got this problem, they are getting blind!!!

I have 2 butterflies auriga, 1 blue-face angel and 1 majestic angel.

The majestic angel has its eyes copletely covered with a lot of white thick stripe (looks like its eyes got out!) and he stoped eating.

1 butterfly has only half of one eye covered.

The blue face has a thin stripe covering its both eyes, may be its just the beggining.


Now, I had the blue-face for about 1-2 months, the butterflies and the majestic angel I got them together from the same store 2 weeks ago.

I also got along with them a blue-ring angel which unforunately died (I asked for help in the forum) but that one had white spots on its body and the eyes were not covered with lot of white.

I asked at a different LFS and I was told that all the fish were sick when I got them and is not the ich common problem in my water( i treated with copper after my blue-ring angel died) and I was told that can be treated with "amphicilin"(not sure how to spell it, sorry)..


My questions are:

1. is this a specific desease that atacks the eyes mostly on marine angels?

2. can I save my fishes and treat them somehow?

3. this happened because my water is infected?


Your help is very appreciated.

Thank you very much.

 

[RogerMcAllen]

What are your levels?

 

[adinona]

all the levels are normal, except the ph which is 7.4 and should be over 8.

I added some ph buffer which raise it to 8.3 and maintain it.


this thing on their eyes looks like is has grown and did not attached on they eyes.

 

[reefrunner69]

Without knowing moe about your system and maintenance procedures...I would say there is somathing in your water that is specifically attacking the eyes of your fish or you have a nasty bacterial infection going on. I would personally QT the fish and treat with pennicillin, while the fish are in QT, I would also work on cleaning up the main tank. The PH of 7.4 is a good sign that you have been lax with your water changes. I would start a series of 15-20% weekly water changes for the period of a couple months.

 

[ReefLady]

Tank size? Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels? Not sure what this is, doesn't sound like pop-eye, or HLLE.

I agree with Kevin - I'd put the fish in QT, and treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic. However, I'd still be curious as to what brought this on to start with.

How old is the tank?

the butterflies and the majestic angel I got them together from the same store 2 weeks ago.

I also got along with them a blue-ring angel which unforunately died (I asked for help in the forum) but that one had white spots on its body and the eyes were not covered with lot of white.

Unless this an extremely large tank, these 4 fish are quite a bit to add at once. It's possible the increase in bioload may have sparked a mini-cycle. It does sound as though the blue-ring Angel had ich or some sort of infection.

 

[ReefLady]

I went back and looked through your posts, and found that you have a 100g tank.

Unfortunately, I also noticed that it looks like you set up the tank somwehere around the beginning of October? I found another post where you indicated that you had added 2 Auriga Butterflies, a Blue Ring Angel, and a Majestic Angel at the end of October, and when those fish were added, the tank already had 6 damsels and a Blue Face Angel in it?

I see a couple potential problems here. I imagine that water quality is (or was at some point) an issue. These Angels thrive in established, mature tanks with pristine water quality. Adding 11 fish within less than a month of setting up the tank, and probably less than 2-3 weeks from when it cycled is asking for disaster.

Also, for a FO tank, these 11 fish would easily max out a 180g tank. Yes, this guideline can be bent somewhat, but not in a newly established tank.

IMO, the combination of adding fish too quickly, to a new tank, and adding too many, all contributed to a possible re-cycle, possible ammonia/nitrite poisoning, and possible subsequent poor water quality, along with stressful/overcrowded conditions.

Chief consideration must be given to size of the system and provision of physical break-up, i.e. decor. These angel species do get large, but even when small only do well where provided lots of nooks and crannies. A minimum tank of one hundred uncrowded gallons is required.

A stable, optimized environment is the ideal for most hobby species of marines; Euxiphipops angels are no exception. They do best in higher pH's (7.8 plus), with little metabolite detectable (as little nitrate as 10 ppm is a good target). These fishes visibly brighten up after water changes.

Euxiphipops are mainly agonistic toward members of their own and subgeneric species. Therefore, one member of the group to a tank.

Amongst angelfishes Euxiphipops are some of the most disease susceptible, and what's worse, least-responsive to conventional treatment. Keep your eyes first and foremost on your arrow-head angel as it will tell you of an impending outbreak or loss of water quality by infection, color loss and behavior.

All above quotes from here: >>Touchy and Expensive, the Large Angels of the Sub-Genus Euxiphipops (Genus Pomacanthus, Family Pomacanthidae) ~ WetWebMedia<<

Sorry for the bad news!