German Blue Ram Eye Fungus?

This morning I was doing my weekly water change when I noticed my female German Blue Ram had some like milky white thing on one of her eyes and it’s making the eye kind of bulge out. I am thinking this might some sort of fungus? (See picture attached below). The only thing that I think she could have gotten it from might have been from eating the eggs that she laid like a week or so ago (I’ve heard the ones that don’t get fertilized will grow fungus) is that most likely where she got it from? What can I do?

 

My guess is that the eye swelling / discoloration is an injury rather than a fungal infection. It will probably look worse before things
improve. Make sure you stay on top of your water management routine.

 

So if that’s the case I assume there’s nothing I can do (like no medicine or anything)?

 

An antiseptic type med, like Melafix might help.

 

Is that meant for injuries? How does it help? Also I doubt my local Petsmart would have it they don’t seem to sell much of anything there.

 

Wal-Mart sells Melafix. It's a med made out of botanical oils.
Very commonly used for fish injuries. Petsmart probably sells it too.

 

Online it says that both my Petsmart and Walmart do not have any in stock in my local store. I can order it online (just clarifying is it the pond version I don’t see anything else?). Is it worth it though or will she heal on her own?

 

The manager at my LFS uses the Pond variety Melafix, but dilutes it in order to save money. It evidently is a stronger mix.
I only use meds in rare situations. I've always relied on pristine water and good nutrition to prevent and heal minor outbreaks and injuries.

 

Alright sounds good. My water quality is always good. I always keep up with my weekly water changes and the water quality is stable. However my nutrition isn’t the best though. I just feed flakes most of the time and rotate in freeze dried bloodworms and sinking pellets are there any foods in my house (like general vegetables or something) may be worth trying to feed my fish?

Anyways I’ll keep an eye on her eye to see if I need to take any further action.

 

Well this sucks. She was finally doing alright for once (have had some troubles getting the male to spawn with her) but I don’t think it was just an injury. Now she’s staying hidden in a cave and breathing really fast and has lost a lot of colour. What could be wrong? What can I do. I’ve had gill mites in the tank before and have doused the tank with PrazI Pro to get rid of them before. The way she’s breathing is exactly how it was with gill mites but I don’t know what’s wrong with the eye and if this might be something new or where it came from.

This is what happened last time that they spawned she ate the eggs and I guess that’s what’s making her sick. So I’ve put the PrazI Pro in the tank but it doesn’t seem to be working.

 

The cloudy eye could be a result of a bacterial infection, but that usually manifest itself as Popeye.
Regarding Popeye, both eyes usually bulge and get cloudy. In your Rams case it looked like a small portion of the eye had clouded up, which indicates injury over infection. I hope it's not a bacterial problem and she heals up soon.

 

I just really don’t know what to do anymore...

If it is an injury why is she breathing so fast and staying hidden at the bottom of the tank and has lost almost all colour?

So there’s no way to tell what is and how to fix it? I found an article possibly explaining what it could be. Let me know what you think.

Fungal Infections in Fish | petMD

Here’s how she looks right now:

 

Fungus attaches itself to damaged or dead tissue. Populations of fungus is always present in aquarium environments. The fungus populations increase under poor water conditions. Your tank looks pretty clean to me. Your tank would have to be very rotten before fungus began taking out your fish. Remember, German Blue Rams are relatively short lived fish even under the best conditions. They need to be kept warm, 82 degrees in order to prosper. Keep your tank clean. If the white discoloration spreads to the body be prepared to remove her.

 

She’s not doing well. And I guess there’s nothing I can do to help her?



Stays there and breathes heavily.

 

I would think most cases with eye issues are bacterial . That does not look like an injury.
Epsom salts may help to relieve the pressure from inside ,but I don't often see fish with popeye make it to full recovery very often.
I would be changing water more often.

 

Sadly she passed away. I’d really like to how this happened though. Could she have gotten sick from eating the eggs with fungus because that’s really the only thing I can think of that could turn her so sick like that. She was really healthy and then all of a sudden this happened. Are my other fish at risk? What happened...

I would think most cases with eye issues are bacterial . That does not look like an injury.
Epsom salts may help to relieve the pressure from inside ,but I don't often see fish with popeye make it to full recovery very often.
I would be changing water more often.

I don’t think doing more than a weekly water change would really benefit me. I feel if anything it would do more harm than good always putting in new water. Nor do I have the time to do water changes more frequently my nitrates are always below 5 at the end of every week before I do my change.

 

Sorry about your ram.

 

Okay now my male has it. Only it is in both eyes. What is it? I need to do something about it, what can I do? I only have a local Petsmart that doesn’t sell much is there anything they might have?

Both of his eyes are bulging out and have like a little ring of fungus growing around them.





(It’s hard to tell from these pictures although it’s pretty evident here for me)

 

your ram has popeye, unfortunately.

 

Bacterial infection [popeye].
Treat with maracyn or maracyn 2
You may want to treat the whole tank if there are other fish regardless of how long this one lives..

 

So where would the disease have come from? I keep my water very pristine and do weekly water changes it’s been this way for a year now and there were never any problems.

The only stuff at my local Petsmart available me are:






Would one of those work?

 

What temp do you keep your tank at ?
I would skip that ,but others may say different...
It is like bactine on a scratch and the fish is a little past the scratch stage.

 

I keep it at 80 F.

So it’s not even worth a shot? Luckily right now he’s still eating and acting as he normally would but it’s really all I can do.

 

80 is a minimum for GBR.
I would not turn it up now for fear of it spreading to other fish ,but would keep in mind rams may need it a little warmer if you try again in the future .
In all honesty if you bought your rams from an LFS that gets their fish from where everyone else does you have found out why I breed rams !
Fish farm rams are inferior without a doubt in most cases..Even I can not keep them alive for more then 6 months tops IME.
There really is not a lot to do for popeye as it is really a symptom of the bacterial infection in the fish.
You can clearly see the damage to the fishes eyes but can't tell what else is going on the fish. Often the liver/kidneys are failing at the same rate.

 

Yeah I know all about the rams from fish farms and stuff. Although luckily I buy from a local wholesaler here and they get their rams from a reliable source (not some mass production farm in Asia that blasts them with hormones). Although this particular male that I have was actually a wild caught specimen (I kind of feel bad taking from the wild like that but it’s all they had at the time) so I feel even more the need to keep him alive and if I could have breed him successfully then I might have created a stronger strand of GBRs. The female wasn’t wild caught however and even though she wasn’t from a hormone boosted farm I could still tell that she was weaker than him.

I think I might try the PIMA fix as just a last resort shot in the dark because I really don’t want to see him go.

I’m going to do a water change then go and purchase it to add to the tank I believe.

 

The fish being wild caught would then infer it needs more demanding water parameters.
Are you using soft , low TDS water ? A wild ram has little chance in most of our source waters IMO.

 

Yes, there’s lots of driftwood in the tank keeping the Ph low and soft water conditions, as I said I keep the water very pristine. I was saying that since he’s wild caught he’s hardier as the rams used to be back before they were mass produced. Also the place that caught them had them in quarantine for a long time, medicating them and ensuring that they’d adjust to captivity and our water.

I’ve had him for a year and he’s settled in very nicely. I don’t think it’s because of my water, he’s been used to it for quite some time now.

 

Well he’s still alive but I feel really bad as he is definitely suffering. I added some aquarium salt in hopes that would help although I think it’s just dragging out his death. Now his eyes are even more swollen, along with his mouth and has some weird bumps around his eye/nose/mouth area. He stays at the bottom and doesn’t eat.

 

The meds you want are kanaplex and furan 2 which can be bought from amazon.com.

 

add some baby brine shrimp to the tank to see if he eats some thing at least, the baby brine is for fry but smaller species of cichlids can still eat them as adults.