Hey kim. 4 of my b. tricoti decided to run into the wall of my tank and their eyes are messed up with white clouds and pop eye for 2 weeks or so now. any ideas on what to do? I have epsom salt in there, lots of water changes, left the lights off and no improvements. They are eating fine and all but are ugly as hell. any ideas?
thanks,
Brad

If it's injury related, Brad, you may just have to wait it out.

Eye issues usually stem from water quality or injury. If they go on for too long, they can lead to bacterial infections.

The best thing you can do is quarantine them in a smaller area, and do daily water changes on the tank. Perfect water helps. (This isn't saying that your water ISN'T perfect, but by doing daily water changes, you're making sure there is absolutely NO contaminant in the water to promote a bacterial infection.)

Aquarium salt or non iodized table salt works better for injury related problems than epsom salt. It has more healing qualities, while epsom salt is more of a mild laxative and an analgesic (for pain). The epsom salt isn't going to hurt, but it may not help.

Melafix is good as far as aiding in preventing bacterial infections.

If they start to behave sluggishly (is that a word???) or stop eating, then I would go ahead and treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic such as erythromycin.

As long as they are eating and behaving normally, just keep up the water changes and give the Melafix a try.

Sometimes eye problems can be a precursor for other illnesses, but if you know these guys were injured, that is probably not the case.

HTH

Please post back and let me know how they are doing, or if they should start to show signs of infection.

Kim

it is definetly an injury, but they are all eating and swimming with the others. i through in some anti bacterial meds to the tank just in case.
thanks, i guess i will just sit and wait worry wart!

Hopefully, they will be fine, Brad. 2 weeks is a pretty long time for it to be going on, though, so the antibiotics aren't a bad idea!

Post back and let me know what's going on, and in the meantime, keep a very close eye on these particular fish for signs of other problems. Secondary infections are usually the ones that get you in trouble!

Kim