10 Gallon Tank My bettas blured/cloudy eyes (whats wrong)

Hey so i just noticed that my elephant siamese betta fish has blured/cloudy eyes, i have no idea what it is or whats wrong, does anyone have a clue what it is
I'll attach photos
The first 2 are his left and the other photos are his right
Edit: we think its a pop eye and will treat him with melafix tonight

 

Hi,

Sorry about your betta! He's very beautiful!

It would be helpful if you could provide more info by answering the questions in the emergency template.

Aquatic Emergency Template

Without knowing this information, this is what I would do if I were you.

I would hold off on the melafix. It's not recommended for bettas as the tea tree oil can interfere with the betta's labyrinth organ. I have tried it, and it never really helped anything.

How are your water parameters? (ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate) Water parameters being off, or eye injury are usually the causes of cloudy eye or pop eye.

If you don't have any invertebrates or scaleless fish in the tank, then I recommend that you start with aquarium salt and water changes. Follow the instructions on the aquarium salt package. I would do small frequent water changes, maybe 20 to 25% every other day. Pristine water is sometimes the best medicine.

When changing the water, it is best to keep track of how much you change so that you do not accidentally over dose the aquarium salt. Aquarium salt is only removed with water changes, so you would not want to give a full dose is you only remove 25 % of the water. It is best not to use aquarium salt for longer than 2 weeks at a time.

Indian almond leaves will help with healing. The tannins released from the leaves will tint the water brown, but tannins are extremely beneficial for bettas. Tannins have slight antibacterial and antifungal properties, so can help in preventing illness to a point, and bettas just love the stuff!

If you see some swelling, I would recommend an epsom salt bath. Use only pure unscented epsom salts. Dissolve one tablespoon into one gallon of clean tank water. Use a separate container; do not add the epsom salt direclty to the tank. Make sure that the bath water is matched to the temp of the tank water. Put the betta in the bath, and if you don't see a big stress reaction, then leave him there for about 20 minutes. Then remove him, and put him back into his tank. This treatment can be repeated as needed as long as he isn't too stressed.

If the aquarium salt/clean water/epsom salt baths do not seem to help his condition after a week or two, then and only then would I recommend an antibiotic. That is a last resort. Natural treatments are always better.

I hope this helps!!!!

 

That's not popeye, that is dragon eye/diamond eye. Essentially the scales are starting to grow over your betta's eyes. It's not a condition that you can cure but bettas can still live long lives with it.

 

It looks like cloudy eyes to me though maybe a scale has grown over the top making it look like an eyelid.

You might need antibiotics but try the salt and epsom method first. If that doesn’t work, and the bacteria doesn’t clear up, I’d recommend SeaChem Kanaplex or Jungle Fungus Clear tabs (nitrofurazone).

 

The water is not so great at the moment but we are going to keep testing the water to know how good or bad it is, its not that good at the moment but, it is cycled tho, i think it had an ammonia spike or something like that, I'll let you know when it gets better, we do have 2 corydoras and 3 sucking catfish i believe they are in the 10g with him

Hi,

Sorry about your betta! He's very beautiful!

It would be helpful if you could provide more info by answering the questions in the emergency template.

Aquatic Emergency Template

Without knowing this information, this is what I would do if I were you.

I would hold off on the melafix. It's not recommended for bettas as the tea tree oil can interfere with the betta's labyrinth organ. I have tried it, and it never really helped anything.

How are your water parameters? (ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate) Water parameters being off, or eye injury are usually the causes of cloudy eye or pop eye.

If you don't have any invertebrates or scaleless fish in the tank, then I recommend that you start with aquarium salt and water changes. Follow the instructions on the aquarium salt package. I would do small frequent water changes, maybe 20 to 25% every other day. Pristine water is sometimes the best medicine.

When changing the water, it is best to keep track of how much you change so that you do not accidentally over dose the aquarium salt. Aquarium salt is only removed with water changes, so you would not want to give a full dose is you only remove 25 % of the water. It is best not to use aquarium salt for longer than 2 weeks at a time.

Indian almond leaves will help with healing. The tannins released from the leaves will tint the water brown, but tannins are extremely beneficial for bettas. Tannins have slight antibacterial and antifungal properties, so can help in preventing illness to a point, and bettas just love the stuff!

If you see some swelling, I would recommend an epsom salt bath. Use only pure unscented epsom salts. Dissolve one tablespoon into one gallon of clean tank water. Use a separate container; do not add the epsom salt direclty to the tank. Make sure that the bath water is matched to the temp of the tank water. Put the betta in the bath, and if you don't see a big stress reaction, then leave him there for about 20 minutes. Then remove him, and put him back into his tank. This treatment can be repeated as needed as long as he isn't too stressed.

If the aquarium salt/clean water/epsom salt baths do not seem to help his condition after a week or two, then and only then would I recommend an antibiotic. That is a last resort. Natural treatments are always better.

I hope this helps!!!!

Thanks so much for letting me know this, the water itself is not so good at the moment but we will make sure it gets better, it must have had an ammonia spike somehow, i wanted to move them to another tank which was a 40g but its already has the max amount of fishes that can go in there so we can't do that, we will keep him on the melafix since we already started and its anti-bacterial, the only other thing we have is betta fix which i heard isn't very good for bettas, if the melafix doesn't help then we will definitely try your recommendations and hope it helps him and that he gets better, im hoping that what he has is treatable but if it truely is dragon eye than i don't think we can do anything but give him the best life we can, his name is rose sky and his lastname is petal(rose sky petal)

 

The water is not so great at the moment but we are going to keep testing the water to know how good or bad it is, its not that good at the moment but, it is cycled tho, i think it had an ammonia spike or something like that, I'll let you know when it gets better, we do have 2 corydoras and 3 sucking catfish i believe they are in the 10g with him

Thanks so much for letting me know this, the water itself is not so good at the moment but we will make sure it gets better, it must have had an ammonia spike somehow, i wanted to move them to another tank which was a 40g but its already has the max amount of fishes that can go in there so we can't do that, we will keep him on the melafix since we already started and its anti-bacterial, the only other thing we have is betta fix which i heard isn't very good for bettas, if the melafix doesn't help then we will definitely try your recommendations and hope it helps him and that he gets better, im hoping that what he has is treatable but if it truely is dragon eye than i don't think we can do anything but give him the best life we can, his name is rose sky and his lastname is petal(rose sky petal)

Melafix is a more concentrated version of bettafix. It's just tea tree oil which isn't good for bettas because it can coat their labyrinth organ. The best thing you can do to improve water quality is frequent water changes to remove harmful compounds. Make sure to vacuum waste/mulm from the gravel too.

I still think it' diamond eye since the cloudiness looks to be the same color as his scales from the pictures.

 

Melafix is a more concentrated version of bettafix. It's just tea tree oil which isn't good for bettas because it can coat their labyrinth organ. The best thing you can do to improve water quality is frequent water changes to remove harmful compounds. Make sure to vacuum waste/mulm from the gravel too.

I still think it' diamond eye since the cloudiness looks to be the same color as his scales from the pictures.

Ok, can you pls explain what a diamond eye is, I've never heard of it before, we will make sure to do frequent water changes, his left eye seemed to get worse and im starting to get very worried, its gotten more white and I'm stating to get more concerned about his vision and whether he can see or not i don't think he can as he is trying to use his right more than his left to look whats going on around him I'll attach a photo below, i tried to get a clear one, im really worried about him, i only hope that he can get better, is there a medicine that you would recommend using, i would ask if we could buy it if it is in our stores/shops

 

Diamond eye is a condition where the scales grow over the fish's eyes. There is no cure for it, as far as I know, and even though it will probably go blind, the betta can continue to do just fine.

 

Ok, can you pls explain what a diamond eye is, I've never heard of it before, we will make sure to do frequent water changes, his left eye seemed to get worse and im starting to get very worried, its gotten more white and I'm stating to get more concerned about his vision and whether he can see or not i don't think he can as he is trying to use his right more than his left to look whats going on around him I'll attach a photo below, i tried to get a clear one, im really worried about him, i only hope that he can get better, is there a medicine that you would recommend using, i would ask if we could buy it if it is in our stores/shops

I am not convinced by the picture this is diamond eye. It doesn’t look like scales growing over his eye, it looks like classic cloudy eye to me. I’d treat for a bacterial infection since it’s getting worse. I also don’t think diamond eye would be super rapid like in growth like this is. Cloudy eye is always white like this so the fact that it’s white like his scales is not surprising but a coincidence.

Since you’re in the US I’d recommend getting SeaChem Kanaplex (kanamycin) or Jungle Fungus Clear tabs (nitrofurazone), ignore the name, it’s an antibiotic and will treat the cloudy eye. Don’t use the melafix, it’s not good for bettas and their labrynth organ.

What are your water parameters at now? You never filled out the emergency template. What is ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, also what is your ph? You should be doing water changes daily or every other day in this tank. If it is bacterial it is probably from poor water quality. How long has this tank been setup? If you could answer all those questions it will help us help you

 

Ok, can you pls explain what a diamond eye is, I've never heard of it before, we will make sure to do frequent water changes, his left eye seemed to get worse and im starting to get very worried, its gotten more white and I'm stating to get more concerned about his vision and whether he can see or not i don't think he can as he is trying to use his right more than his left to look whats going on around him I'll attach a photo below, i tried to get a clear one, im really worried about him, i only hope that he can get better, is there a medicine that you would recommend using, i would ask if we could buy it if it is in our stores/shops

Ah from that photo I can see it looks more white which isn't consistent with diamond eye. I agree with CindiL.

 

Ah from that photo I can see it looks more white which isn't consistent with diamond eye. I agree with CindiL.

Ok, thats good to know that its probably not a diamond eye, he has gone blind in his left and barely has vision in his left

I am not convinced by the picture this is diamond eye. It doesn’t look like scales growing over his eye, it looks like classic cloudy eye to me. I’d treat for a bacterial infection since it’s getting worse. I also don’t think diamond eye would be super rapid like in growth like this is. Cloudy eye is always white like this so the fact that it’s white like his scales is not surprising but a coincidence.

Since you’re in the US I’d recommend getting SeaChem Kanaplex (kanamycin) or Jungle Fungus Clear tabs (nitrofurazone), ignore the name, it’s an antibiotic and will treat the cloudy eye. Don’t use the melafix, it’s not good for bettas and their labrynth organ.

What are your water parameters at now? You never filled out the emergency template. What is ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, also what is your ph? You should be doing water changes daily or every other day in this tank. If it is bacterial it is probably from poor water quality. How long has this tank been setup? If you could answer all those questions it will help us help you

Oh, im actually from darwin nt living in zuccoli, i will see if i can order the medicine, i will ask to do a water test today and if the water has gotten better, probably not so much as the filter is out because we are giving him medicine, but if it has gotten better a fair bit I'll make sure I'll answer the questions, this tank has been set up for more than 4-5 months, right now i can tell you that the water is not good at all but as i said we are doing our best to help rose sky and make the water better, we have done a water change about 25% hoping that helped a bit

 

Ok, thats good to know that its probably not a diamond eye, he has gone blind in his left and barely has vision in his left

Oh, im actually from darwin nt living in zuccoli, i will see if i can order the medicine, i will ask to do a water test today and if the water has gotten better, probably not so much as the filter is out because we are giving him medicine, but if it has gotten better a fair bit I'll make sure I'll answer the questions, this tank has been set up for more than 4-5 months

Make sure to NOT remove the filter, that is where the majority of your nitrifying bacteria live in. If you remove the filter and let it dry out you are in effect killing off most of your cycle. If there is carbon in the filter floss, just cut a hole in it and dump the carbon out but leave the filter cartridge in.

Highly recommend stopping the melafix.

On the note of filter media, never throw your old cartridges out until they’re falling apart. When you do need to change one, cut the floss off of the frame (if you have a frame) and stick it in with the new filter pad for a week so it seeds the new pad. After that, you can toss the old floss.

 

Make sure to NOT remove the filter, that is where the majority of your nitrifying bacteria live in. If you remove the filter and let it dry out you are in effect killing off most of your cycle. If there is carbon in the filter floss, just cut a hole in it and dump the carbon out but leave the filter cartridge in.

Highly recommend stopping the melafix.

On the note of filter media, never throw your old cartridges out until they’re falling apart. When you do need to change one, cut the floss off of the frame (if you have a frame) and stick it in with the new filter pad for a week so it seeds the new pad. After that, you can toss the old floss.

Alright, yea, we did stop melafix and we decided to go on to primeafix i think it was i hope that this is better, i will ask if we can put the filter back in, we only did the charcoal filter out and left the rest in

 

Oh ok, leave charcoal out during treatment. I’d go with one of the antibiotics I mentioned above. Pimafix is very mild and weak I don’t think will cure his eye which appears to be a bacterial infection.

 

Oh ok, leave charcoal out during treatment. I’d go with one of the antibiotics I mentioned above. Pimafix is very mild and weak I don’t think will cure his eye which appears to be a bacterial infection.

Ok, i will make sure that i will try and order one of the antibiotics you mentioned above
Edit: my parent/guardian says that they won't order it because of how much it costs im trying to get them to order at least one but from the sounds of it they won't, the only thing we have is primafix, melafix and bettafix we have nothing else, which one would you pick, im sorry, im trying my best to at least have them order one but the price is the problem sadly

 

I’m sorry to hear that! The Jungle Fungus Clear tabs are only 3.99 on amazon, the Kanaplex is more at about $9.00. These are only a couple bucks more than the other medicines. Your fish needs an antibiotic as that appears to be an external bacterial infection.

Betta Fix is Tea Tree oil also, so a weaker version of Melafix for Bettas. Pima Fix is made from West Indian Bay trees. They are mostly ok for mild fin rot, secondary fuzzy fungal infections.

 

I’m sorry to hear that! The Jungle Fungus Clear tabs are only 3.99 on amazon, the Kanaplex is more at about $9.00. These are only a couple bucks more than the other medicines. Your fish needs an antibiotic as that appears to be an external bacterial infection.

Betta Fix is Tea Tree oil also, so a weaker version of Melafix for Bettas. Pima Fix is made from West Indian Bay trees. They are mostly ok for mild fin rot, secondary fuzzy fungal infections.

Ok, I'll try to get my mum to order the cheaper one off of amazon, Edit:she said she couldn't find, is it possible you send a link to one of them pls
Edit 2:shipping makes it very expansive so we struggling but we are still trying
Edit 3: she ordered the kanaplex

 

Those are on Amazon US so if you’re in another country it may be harder to find it, I am glad you found Kanaplex though!

 

Those are on Amazon US so if you’re in another country it may be harder to find it, I am glad you found Kanaplex though!

Same, while we wait for the medication to arrive we will keep treating him with prima fix so it makes it so it won't get that much worse as quickly

 

Ok, so a platy gave birth idk which one but i want to give them a higher chance by keeping them in a container which is clean and i make water changes everyday to ensure their survival, i can't keep them all so this is what i did, as i mentioned above i seperated those i thought are at highest risk of being eaten sooo i took them out and put them in a container and put the tank water i took them from, in it, the catch is that I'll only keep them safe for a week and then release them so they are a bit bigger, now this is something that I'm doing secretly and i have to put them somewhere, where my parents won't find them or are most unlikely to find them, i cannot do normal water changes as its secret but basically what i do for water changes is i take 50-80% of water out depending on how bad it is and put new water in which is from the same tank i got them from, yes it is a huge secret that i have to keep but I'm also doing this for my sisters especially for my youngest sister who is currently suffering fish loss, and instead of buying new replacements she gets one of my fry!
Edit: omg x4, my white female mollies belly looks much smaller, ok, so maybe they're not platies after all, this makes me want to keep at least 1
Edit: i decided to put them back in the tank, its not worth it as they won't have oxygen, its a 40g, my bettas eye is doing better, the medication hasn't arrived yet tho