# cloudy eye



## Blackfinshark (Nov 4, 2013)

ok so i have a black fin shark about 4" long. i've only had him about a month. i initially had him in the small tank with tiger barbs and i dunno if one of them nipped his dorsal fin or whatever but he got stressed out and was hiding all the time. i noticed the tip of his dorsal fin was nipped or something. 

after i got the big tank up and running a few weeks i moved him to the big tank. i noticed his dorsal fin beginning to rot after that. i treated with melafix for 2 weeks and his dorsal fin grew back fine. everything looked ok. before this treatment his eye and tail were fine. now it's been a week or so after i treated and his dorsal fin is still fine but his tail is starting to show fin rot and now one of his eyes are getting cloudy.

should i just take him back to the store and get a new fish? it seems he's not gonna get over whatever it is bothering him. i don't really wanna buy another bottle of melafix without knowing it will work for sure. it seems like the first treatment would have worked since his dorsal fin grew back. what is going on with this fish?

nothing is wrong with the water. all of the other fish are fine.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

cloudy water and eroding fins can be a sign of a water quality issue. That can happen pretty quickly in a small hospital tank. They can also be signs of injury from aggression or bacterial infection. You have 4 sharks in one tank? That may be the issue. One shark, one gourami, one cichlid per tank is a safe rule. You really need to know the fish to stock multiples. If he got worse in hosp., give it a 100% water change. If he got worse in the big tank, it likely is getting beat up.


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## Blackfinshark (Nov 4, 2013)

these sharks are small. about 4" or less each. they actually are supposed to be kept in groups of 3 or more. technically they are catfish not sharks. 

he got better but then after treatment he's showing signs of getting worse again. he's not getting beat up. he actually is the one that chases the other one around the tank sometimes. lol

it got injured by the tiger barbs i believe back when i had him in the small tank. i moved him to the big tank and after that bacteria set in causing fin rot. i thought it was gone after treatment but it seems it's still there.


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## Ice (Sep 25, 2006)

Mixing agressive fish (barbs) with peaceful fish is always never a good idea. You need to know what fish are compatibile with what. I think that's where your problem is.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

tiger barbs in low numbers are indeed trouble. But I don't know if you should keep the fish and treat or not. Do step up water changes on the big tank. IME clean water and time can help.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i have used melafix with great success on a number of problems..just because you treated and the fish were cured(or just improved) does not mean that something cannot happen to cause a problem again...


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## Blackfinshark (Nov 4, 2013)

yeah he's no longer in the tank with the tiger barbs. hasn't been for a month. there are no aggressive fish in the big tank he's in now. not sure what is going on. his eye looks less cloudy today though. maybe he will snap out of it.

it may just be something wrong with this particular fish. the other black fin shark i have i've had even longer. he was in the tank with the barbs too and he never has had a problem in 2 months since i've had him. 

the newer one with cloudy eye i've had about a month or so. he's been "damaged" the whole time i've had him. he was in perfect shape when i bought him at the store and then a day or so later he showed up with the tip of his dorsal fin gone and white looking. after treatment that grew back but now his eye is cloudy and his tail has a little bit of white or rot on it.

maybe he's just a bad fish with some type of genetic disease? i dunno. the other shark has never had an issue from day 1 til now. he's been perfectly fine the whole time.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Its not impossible to have a genetically weak fish in this age of line-breeding. But its more likely he is just weakened by illness and that make him more likely to get other illnesses. IME, once a fish has fin-rot or cloudy eye, that fish is far more likely to get it again. Like some people are prone to bronchitis and others to laryngitis or sore throat. Whenever this fish gets stressed, you will likely see a flare-up of one or the other.


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## Blackfinshark (Nov 4, 2013)

i put him back in the hospital tank for the time being. i'll try 2 more weeks and see if he gets better. he's been acting ok. he eats and everything. usually when they stop eating you know they are about to die.


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## Blackfinshark (Nov 4, 2013)

shark lasted 1 day in hospital tank then died. spent $20 on a heater and melafix for nothing. lol


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## TheJakeM (May 11, 2013)

You can always use it later.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Sorry to hear. I always put fish in hosp. I can seldom tell which will get better. I don't think of either cloudy eye or finrot as a normally fatal, but they both seem to be opportunistic, attacking fish that are weakened or stressed. I hope you don't have a third illness in the tank.


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## Blackfinshark (Nov 4, 2013)

nah every other fish is fine and has been.

i'm finding when you buy fish at walmart it's hit or miss. some of them make it and turn out fine and others don't for some reason. i've had some i bought and they died within a few hrs after i got them home in the tank. others die after a day or so. others i've had for months with no issues. the water is the same so it's not the water quality it's just the fish themselves.

i just bought 3 yesterday. 2 rasboras and 1 algae eater. only 1 rasbora made it. the algae eater died within a few hrs and the other rasbora got eaten or something because it's gone. i went and replaced the 2 today and they are both doing fine. it's a mystery i guess. lol 

i always try to pick the best ones out but even that doesn't guarantee they will be a good fish. you never know until you get them home for a few weeks. good thing walmart has a 90 day warranty so you can just get a refund and get a new fish to replace it if something goes wrong. if a fish makes it 90 days you can be sure it's gonna last a long time.

i try to buy the fish when they first get there. the delivery guy brings them on thursdays so i try to buy fish on thursday night or friday. that way they aren't sitting in the tanks for weeks before you buy them. the longer they are there the worse off they will be. even then some of them are fine. i've seen certain fish in there for months and they are still lively and in good shape. it just seems certain fish are "stronger" than others. i'm not sure what determines this but it's clearly the case. you would think since they all come from the same place they would be equal but they aren't.

only the strong survive in the wild so it's the same way with aquarium fish. 

i've even bought fish at the other pet store in my area. the same thing applies there. some make it and others don't. it's pet depot about 20 min away from my house. walmart is only about 10 min away. there is a petco about 30 min away.

something just happened with this shark when i got him. i guess the tiger barbs stressed him out or something. he never got over it even when i moved him to another tank. it's like some fish are so fragile. one little thing goes wrong and you can say goodbye. they never fully get over it.

others are strong and can withstand almost anything and live 15 years or more. you just never know until it all plays out.

i had 2 sharks in the tank with the tiger barbs. the one still living never got stressed out and wasn't hiding and stuff. the one that died was hiding and stressed out the whole time with the barbs. same kind of fish different outcome.

as for the heater i can use it for a backup for the 5 gallon tank i guess or another hospital tank heater if something should go wrong down the line. 

i think nothing should ever go wrong in the first place if everything is in order to begin with. i just messed up putting the shark in the tank with the tiger barbs. tiger barbs are a weird fish. some fish they attack and others they don't seem to care to bother. not sure what the difference is. maybe it's because i put a more docile fish into the tank after the aggressive barbs rather than the other way around? 

this is something i hate about fish. they have to be so territorial and such. you gotta just find fish that can get along i guess. it's a learning process i suppose. the stores don't always know and can't tell you.

even within certain types of fish they can be very different. some are more aggressive and others more peaceful. you just never know until you get the fish how it will turn out.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I agree fish from stores are hit or miss, wal-mart most of all. Fish come from all over the world and spend time in wholesaler and distributors tanks as well as in transit. Its easy to imagine them picking up an exotic disease on route or just getting cooked or frozen or ammonia burned because a connecting flight was missed. 

Compatibility is one of the hardest things to learn. Partly because fish vary so much from between species and individuals, party because so much of the "common knowledge" you get from stores and even books is just plain wrong. "all peaceful fish will get along" NOT, the fast ones will starve the slow ones. "all semi-aggressive fish will get along", again no. 

Cichlids each have a territory size in mind. From a 10 gallon footprint for a breeding pair of rams, to "as far as the fish can see" for a male melanochromis, which is usually the whole tank in our nice clearwater, well-lit tanks. 

Always ask on the forums, search on the web, and still have a contingency plan for when fish attack each other. Mine is a row of 5 and 10 gallon hospital tanks for isolation tail regrowth.


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## Blackfinshark (Nov 4, 2013)

yeah i've found fish stores get a ton of fish in all at one time. so the tanks are way overcrowded. if they don't sale them quick then the fish start to die because of it. these sharks are pretty popular though at walmart. they get about 10 in at one time and they are all gone within a few days. alot of their other fish don't sale so quickly and start to die one by one. some of them don't die though. i guess that's a way to know which ones are stronger but it's hard to keep up with them since there may be 20-50 fish of the same kind in a little tank.


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## Ice (Sep 25, 2006)

I usually steer away from Walmart for fish. 99% of the time I always see dead fish in their tanks. You're better off getting them at Petsmart or even better - a local fish store. The only fish I bought at Petsmart were Peppered Corycats, 2 Neon tetras, and the Peacock Gudgeon. At my LFS I bought 4 Neon tetras dirt cheap (one was on the small side and was found stuck in my filter tube) and the German Blue Ram.

At the moment, I've got an empty 3 gallon tank and looking to put in a single Scarlet Gem Badis.


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## Blackfinshark (Nov 4, 2013)

yeah i'm limited on my options other than buying online which is not what i really want to do. every store in my area is a chain store of some sort. perhaps i should just open my own fish pet store? lol

i've found that walmart will have fish that the pet depot doesn't have and vice versa. petco didn't have a huge selection to be honest when i went there.

walmart has the black fin sharks, algae eaters, rasboras, red tipped sharks, etc. while the pet depot has things like angelfish, crabs, frogs, crawfish, etc.

they both have tiger barbs, neons, cichilids, goldfish, bala sharks, pictus catfish, corydoras, tetras, guppies, etc.

so if i want some things they are only available at walmart where i live. plus walmart is alot closer. it's the only place to buy fish in the city i live in. the pet depot is 2 cities away. the petco is 3 cities away.

there are a few local pet stores but they are all for dogs, cats, and reptiles. no local fish stores.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Come to the Atlanta for the AAAA auction in the spring. Or post on our forum and hope to hook up with some local breeders, we do have several members that live in AL. http://www.atlantaaquarium.com/forum.php


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## GoldenGirl11 (Nov 9, 2014)

I don't think of either cloudy eye or finrot as a normally fatal -emc7








Actually, my fish won't eat, and he has fin rot, doesn't swim much, and is dying. I am doing what I can, but he's not getting better. :fish:


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i am glad to see such an expert on so many matters of this hobby...but i wll beg to differ with you as both finrot and cloudy eye can result in death without prompt and proper treatment....
and only 11 years old......my goodness..


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

is there any logic to responding to old and outdated posts ?


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