white spot on eyes of Rasboras

[LM]

Hi all,

Happy New Year! hope all of you are enjoying the new year so far...

Anyhow, it's been a long time, but I came across something that i
don't know what it is.. so hoped i can get some insight from y'all..

I have about 11 harlequin rasboras in my fish tank. about 8 of them
are ~4.5yrs old and the others about 2 years old.

Recently I noticed that about 4 of the rasboras have a white spot in
their eyes. it's not a film that covers the entire eye, but a white
spot right where you would describe as pupil is white. All of the
affected fish are acting pretty normally. The white spot sometimes
fills the entire "pupil" area, and others not. Some *may* look a
little swollen, but it's hard to tell. From what I can tell, it
seems the white is inside the eye, and not on the outside... but given
how fast they move and the spot is so small, it's hard to tell for
sure. The rest of the eye looks clear.

Fish coloration is pretty normal. Water condition is soft, but
nothing noteworthy (pH ~6.8, zero ammonia, nitrite.. about 5ppm
nitrate.. it's a well-planted aquarium)

Is this some disease that needs treating? Any idea what it is? What
should I do?

The tank is shared by SAE, chain loaches, zebra loaches, oto and
cherry barbs, if there are any issue with medication if the rasboras
need it. Tank is using canister and defunct UGF (I have the powerhead
running, but it's probably all clogged under the plate with muck and
roots... I just leave it running until I have the courage to overhaul
the darn thing which may be never...).

Linda

[Andy Gratton]

Hi Linda,

 

Unfortunately  it sounds like  the problem  might be linked to  your UGF  as the amount of Mulm / nasty stuff under it  is probably causing a water  quality issue  despite  the planrs using the majority of the Nitrates.

 

A possible solution to  remove the  stuff from  under the  UGF without a major  breakdown  is to use something like a syphon tube and place it  down  the uplift tube  and syphon the stuff away  during a water change,  one possible  problem  with that is if the stuff has gone into anaerobic breakdown   the release of some really nasty stuff Hydrogen Sulphide which is not good.

 

Hopefully  Others will be able to suggest other avenues to explore

 

 

Andy

[NetMax]

I don't know. I thought cloudy eye had vectors associated with poor
water conditions. White spots in the pupil could be associated with
internal parasites, nematodes (roundworms), cestodes (tapeworms) or
something similar (.... Displostumum spatheum?).

On one hand, old fish break down this way and the fact that they are
small, old and still kicking around is a testament to good conditions.

On the other hand, old tanks with mulm build up can produce dissolved
nasties which our test kits do not detect, and can provide a rich
environment for bacterial, viral & parasitic nasties to reproduce.
Sorry I couldn't be more help. I think I've seen this with some of my
very old Cardinal tetras.

NetMax

On Jan 11, 4:09 am, Andy Gratton <anglerfis...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi Linda,
>
> Unfortunately  it sounds like  the problem  might be linked to  your UGF  as
> the amount of Mulm / nasty stuff under it  is probably causing a water
> quality issue  despite  the planrs using the majority of the Nitrates.
>
> A possible solution to  remove the  stuff from  under the  UGF without a
> major  breakdown  is to use something like a syphon tube and place it  down
> the uplift tube  and syphon the stuff away  during a water change,  one
> possible  problem  with that is if the stuff has gone into anaerobic
> breakdown   the release of some really nasty stuff Hydrogen Sulphide which
> is not good.
>
> Hopefully  Others will be able to suggest other avenues to explore
>
> Andy
>

> > Linda- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[LM]

Hi NetMax, Andy,

Thanks for your thoughts. I suppose it could be the junk from the
UGF, but if so, I would think it would affect all the loaches near
ground zero be affected first...? then again, may be not.

should I dump some parasite meds to see if it does anything? or is
that not a recommended "shotgun" approach...?

I've been trying to siphon stuff out of under the UGF, bur for a very
long time now (read: years), I can't get much beyond the first glob
right around the uptake tube using a 1/2" tubing. It's pretty densely
matted with all the root materials from the plants (amazon, anubius,
some stem plants, and lots and lots and lots of Java ferns... they
grow like weeds!!) so it's as bad (or worse) than a nicely slimy/grimy
filter pad under the plate at this point. I see fresh roots sticking
up through the uptake tube, so... not sure what that means...

I've been contemplating doing a major overhaul (taking out the UGF),
but just don't have the courage to do it... Mainly because I'm petite
enough that I can't do it alone, and with two young bi-peds running
amok in the house, there's no way my hubby and I can get enough free
time to overhaul the darn thing before the fish dies in the temporary
tank... would be easier to buy another tank and move things over and
decommission this one :-) unlikely, given our current finances, or
the floor space for that matter (no other place to put a tank this
size except where it is, so..)...

I have no clue how long each fish species is supposed to live.. Does
anyone know how long rasboras live? I've got couple of SAEs I got
back in '03 and it's still.. er.. very fat and happy...

[LM]

Oh, speaking of dissolved nasties from mulm buildup, my husband got a
"water quality meter" as a gag gift from a friend of his.. it's one of
those you're supposed to dip into the drinking water when you go
camping to find out how much dissolved material is in there, or to
test your tap water to check its water quality.

Can I use this to figure out how yucky the water actually is?

Is there a rule of thumb on how much ppm of dissolved whatever is bad?

[NetMax]

re: water quality meter, perhaps it's just a general hardness
indicator. As long as the gH is close to tap and consistant for the
aquarium, I wouldn't worry unless it was at an extreme.

re: rasbora life expectancy, 5-6 years

re: SAE life expectancy, long, 10+ years

re: mulm under UGF. This one needs more clarification. Under the
UGF, you can get a sandy or cottony substance. I don't think there's
any issue with this stuff. It's what didn't easily dissolve back into
the water. The real problem with the UGF is not usually what is under
the plates, but what has been trapped in the gravel by the action of
the pumps. Detritus clogs the gravel, gets broken down by anaerobic
bacteria and generates noxious gases, ammonia and causes an
acidification of the water. In a softwater tank, pH crash is a
concern. In a hardwater tank, it manifests itself as very high
nitrate levels.

Until it gets clogged, a UGF works reasonably well. After it gets
clogged, it makes a bit of a biological mess. After a few years of
non-operation, it would mostly have cleaned itself out, so if the UGF
is not pumping water, and you're doing your normal gravel vacuuming,
the UGF might become a non-issue. Disassembly will require strong
scissors though ;~)

Also the fact that you have plants means that the roots have targetted
the pockets of collected mulm for food. UGFs clogging in unplanted
tanks are time bombs.

As I said, cloudy eye might be water parameters. However, you said
they had eye spots, which might be age or internal parasites (and not
related to water parameters). Measure your kH. If the mulm is very
active, the aquarium kH will be significantly lower than your tap kH.
Gravel vacuuming and frequent water changes will help, as will the
plants which are water filters as well.

NetMax

[Gerge]

Hola

This post is extremely old, but I was wondering if you remember what happened further on?  I've noticed the same thing with my harlequins, and it seems that our tanks specs during your observation are very different.  My water chem follows: haaard water (GH ~ 460 mg/L), KH ~ 40 mg/L, pH ~ 8, NH3/NO2 both 0, NO3 ~ 5 ppm, water temp 23.5 C during the day.  My tank is moderately planted with vallisneria, a couple varieties of anubias, and some Elodea densa.  I do not have a UGF, but an external hanging filter well rated for the tank volume.  Tank has a bit of mulm buildup under the gravel, since the fellow who owned the thing before me wasn't diligent in cleaning (I only recently inherited the tank).  However I did notice one harlequin acting a little "spazzy" the other day, i.e., it moved more quickly and erratically than is normal for these specimens (at least in my limited experience).  I also don't know how old these rasboras are, since they have been passed down through friends for (potentially) several years.  Did you make any new discoveries, or changes to the tank that might have indicated a possible cause?

Love,

G

[LM]

Well, since my last post on this topic, my rasboras kept living without getting better or worse.. until one by one they died over the past year, presumably of old age.  Right now there's only 3 rasboras left, but then again, it's been over 4 years.. so life expectancy... (if 8 of them were 4.5yrs old and 3 of them were 2 years old back in 2011, I guess the three left were the 2yr olds, which is now about 6 years old.. getting there...)

UGF is still there.  it's full of muck, but I still have the powerhead running, mostly to circulate the water.  Most of the filtering is handled by my Eheim 2224.  Water is still painfully soft (I have crushed corals hanging in a mesh bag).

Given they didn't get better (eyes not get better), and they sort of lived a normal life span, and still living.. They still have no problems fighting over food, etc.  With very little change in the setup, I'd say the white eyes may be something like cataracts for dogs and cats.. It just happens...

Linda