Today I noticed a white haze on one of Killer's eyes. It looks like a cataract but his eyes are so small its impossible to examine the way I would any other animal. I'm just curious if anyone here has dealt with cataracts in fish? Or if theres anything else that this could be?

Do you have a magnifying lens or microscope? If its the whole eye it may be cloudy eye. How old is he?
I would think old fish might get cataracts like old animals

Maybe a bacterial infection? Are there any other symptoms?

His behavior hasn't changed any. I haven't been able to get a good look at it today, he doesn't like to show me that side of him. I'm going to try and forcefully take a look as soon as I get a chance, I've been so busy today I haven't even had time to eat...

I suppose it could happen, but I've never heard of fish getting cataracts. I think it would most likely be a bacterial infection so I'd get some maracyn or something similar to medicate him.

I got a better look at it tonight. It looks like a grain of salt right in the middle of his eye. He hasn't been acting any different than usual, if anything hes been more active. I'll see if I can pick up some marycin tomorrow when I go to the store but don't know if I'll be able to, money is extremely tight right now.

I read something about old bettas getting cataracts as they got older last night!! It was on www.nippyfish.com I belive, which is a great site. If his eye doesn't improve after treatment and he's acting fine, then that may be what it is.

Or maybe he damaged his eye? How you described it in your last post reminds be of a scratch with scar tissue healed over. Hmmm..

Okay, I'm seriously worried now. Killer has got this pustule looking thing hanging from his gill. At first I thought it was just something sticking to him so I put a mirror up to his tank to get his to flare and when he flares only on side comes down. I just got back from Thanksgiving break sunday night and he was acting perfectly normal then. He's still acting mostly normal but this thing looks nasty. Would adding salt be of any help at all? I also have a fungus med somewhere but I'm not sure what this is and I don't want to medicate until I have an idea whats going on. I can't go to the store till tomorrow night so hopefully it won't get wrose till then.

Are there any rough edges he could have ran into? Is it possible he has ich? Use a bright light and see if he has any spots on him that look like tiny grains of salt. My plakat injured his eye on a filter, it looked like there was white around the eye and a bit of 'skin' hanging off. I treated with salt and melafix... he healed right up in a week or so and is doing better than ever now. For the ich I also heated the tank to 85deg. and kept it in the dark. I also did alot of water changes.

Hope everything turns out for the best.

Would it be possible for you to post a picture?

Its definatly not ich, no question about that. My computer is being retarded and won't upload photos from my camera so theres no luck there either. He looks a bit better now but I'm still worried. He's acting normally but his face just doesn't look good. The white on his eye is on the eye, it looks just like a cataract but now its spread to both eyes. I'm going to the store today so I'm going to see if I can afford any of the meds they have, I just can't decide whether it looks like a fungus or a bacteria.

If you can't figure it out, you can try jungle fungus clear since it has both fungal and bacterial meds in it.

I dug out some maroxy that I bought a few months ago. I think I'll try that and see if theres any improvement. I looked at meds today at the store and they're like $15 for a box, I can't afford that right now unless its absolutely necessary. If the fungus meds I have don't work I'll go buy some anti-biotics but I just want to try what I have first. I hate being a poor college kid

From one poor college student to another, i would try the jungle fungus clear like Kissy said if what you have doesn't work, I used it on my goldies one time when they had a mysterious fuzz and it worked like a charm and the good thing is it's cheap. You can get it at Wally World so it's like 4 bucks at most. I do hope the maroxy works on him!

I had a Columbian tetra develop what looked like cataracts as well. I found on a website (http://www.2cah.com/pandora/Disease.html#Cloudyeye) that this can be a sign of general poor water quality. I had thought my tank was fine but I went ahead and really tried to make everything perfect in the tank...I trimmed the plans, cleaned the gravel, changed the filter inserts, etc. Within a week or two his eyes had cleared up! Maybe this could help your guy before you buy expensive meds.


Chrissy

Okay, I finally got my camera to work. Heres a pic of what Killer's eyes looked like. In the picture his eye looks like its bulging but thats just a trick of the camera, it really wasn't doing that. They look much better now though so its kind of outdated information but you can at least see what I meant. He's getting better but still not quite back to normal....he hasn't been chasing his guppies much lately.

I hope Killer continues to improve! But I have to say he is stunning! What a beautiful Betta he is.