White Spots on Eyes

[Fishboy1988]

Kia ora, 

Me with yet again another fish issue. 
 

One of my X-Ray tetras has white spots on both its eyes and is acting a little odd. 
https://ibb.co/bNQzsQ6

I know that ich is white spots but usually that covers the body or starts on the gills right? From my post history you can see I lost another X-Ray a little while ago to a different illness, but it did not have white spots on its eyes. 

But while I’m here I’d like some more general advice: this is about the third or so illness in a few months and I’m not sure what’s going on. I do 30% water changes every week, I vacuum the gravel every few weeks, I have a high quality diet etc, I test the water regularly and have a planted tank. Is there anything I’m doing wrong? 

Yesterday I had to put a gold barb down because it had been manically swimming at the top of the tank for a month or so without eating, I can upload video if anyone is interested. It was not swim bladder, seemed to be something else? It feels like my fish get illnesses that don’t spread, all with different symptoms, so I’m a little stumped. 

I have run a praziquantel cycle and then a week after it finished and I did several water changes I ran a week course of Melafix. 
 

Any advice would be great because losing fish regularly is becoming quite upsetting.

Sorry for the long post 😂 

[Caryl]

This is not something I have come across before. I did a quick online search and found another fishkeeper with the same problem in his X-ray tetras but nobody had any ideas in that forum either. 😞

It does seem odd that you have lost a few fish, all seemingly for different reasons. Do you have a test kit to check the pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels? Water changes are all well and good but do you know what the council is adding to the water? Our local water used to be good but now the council adds lime water and caustic soda to raise the pH as it was corroding the pipes. I know of local fishkeepers who have had major algae problems since council started doing this but have not noticed any difference myself, probably because I am a terrible fishkeeper and do not do regular water changes! My tank is heavily planted and the fish load is small.

Every time you add a medication to the water, you are upsetting the nutrient cycle, possibly meaning it has to go through a full cycle again. I rarely add anything to the water, especially if I do not have a definitive diagnosis of the suspected disease. If a fish needs medicating, I separate it and treat it in a small container.

That just made me think - if it is only one fish getting sick at a time, it is unlikely to be something wrong with the tank as a whole or you would get several sick fish at once. It is new fish that are dying? Perhaps they already had something while in the shop. Do you quarantine your fish before adding them to your main tank?

[Fishboy1988]

Thank you for the reply Caryl. 
 

I have a testing kit, parameters are all fine - no ammonia, no nitrite, nitrates are on about 10ppm but I add fertiliser once a week and have been assured this is ok. In terms of pH I’ve never been able to get an accurate reading - it’s always at the highest number of the regular pH check and at the lowest number of the high pH check, so I think it’s somewhere between 7.4 and 7.6. The tank is quite heavily planted but has a gravel substrate. 

The thing for me is that all the fish getting sick are the oldest ones that I got when I inherited the tank. The only issue I can see is that for the two recent ones they are in groups well under what the recommended amount is - I had 3 X-Ray tetras, one died randomly and now this one of the last two is having issues. With the barb we had two very mature ones, one was killed by the pleco (which has been rehomed) and then the other one got sick and I put her down on Friday. I had bought 5 more barbs to bring up the numbers but they were very juvenile and they stayed separate from the older barb. 
 

I mean it might just be legacy health issues for the fish that I inherited from the old owner - I’ve had the tank for a year and the more I’ve learned, the more I’ve realised that the previous owner wasn’t good at looking after the tank. 
 

The X-Ray is twitching a lot today and seems to be uncomfortable, so I’m going to give it an Epsom salt bath, but outside of that I don’t really know what else to do.

[Caryl]

When you buy several fish from a somewhere, chances are they are from the same spawning or hatching, so the same age. This means you can get several die at once, not because they have a disease, but because they are the same age and dying of old age at similar times.

I doubt the pH has anything to do with your problems.

I have often seen a group of fish bully a single one that has been added at a different time.