Help me (cloudy eyes)

[Miss ATV]

Hello all,

Do you know what is happening with my Apistogramma cacatuoides eyes? It first appeared on one eye a slight cloudiness, and it seemed to bother him quite a bit because he kept trying to rub it off (he was flashing on that side)
It grew and developed more in the last few months now his eye is very cloudy. Today I am seeing similar thing appearing on the other eye. He acts absolutely normal eating and active, and he's almost 2 years old.
Aquarium is established for 1 year, planted, no ammonia readings at all the tank is 70 liters with 2 filters

 

[MacZ]

Is there a whitish rim on the gills? If so this might be from gill flukes. But the way it looks all over I'm inclined to think either bacteria, a deficiency or even old age. 2 years has for some domestic strains become a high age.

What are the water parameters? What do you feed? What's your maintenance schedule? And can you post a picture of the whole tank?

 

[Miss ATV]

I don't see white on the gills but not sure as he doesnt sit still for photos and comes up to the top when I go there - I can't see well from underneath him. I tried taking some more photos with a bit better lighting

Water is pH 7.4 temp is 25 , no ammonia no nitrites and nitrates around 30
I change every 5 days 60% off the water
Feed every day something else: frozen glassworms, frozen brine shrimps, cyclops, Hikari micro pellets, Repashy soilent green, sometimes live brine shrimps, Hikari catfish omnivore pellets

I do not feed any bloodworms at all in any shape or tubifex.

 

[MacZ]

Really nice tank!

Besides the Repashy and the catfish pellets in the diet there is nothing to wish for.

I see pencilfish and corydoras. How many tankmates are there in total?

 

[Miss ATV]

Really nice tank!

Besides the Repashy and the catfish pellets in the diet there is nothing to wish for.

I see pencilfish and corydoras. How many tankmates are there in total?

3 x pencils
6 x corys
6 x otocinclus (2 hypoptopoma sp peru - very very small & 4 cocama)

 

[MacZ]

Allright.

Well as of now and with all the info my best guess is the fish is getting older and that often means deteriorating health and bodily functions. Cloudy eyes are often the first sign of a fish passing it's prime.

 

[anewbie]

Yea. Bit surprise by how fast cockatoo age. I have a 2 year old male that is definitely showing signs of age - not cloudy eyes per sey but other body shape changes. I had a female that was similar age that recently passed that showed what i consider typical old age changes. For some reason i thought these fishes would live closer to 5 years - guess my water conditions are not very good for them.

 

[Miss ATV]

Yes I was expecting at least some changes after 3 years not so soon. Ah well, I have ordered some more types of Repashy and some canned food from Aquarium systems to help the old man stay fit as long as possible.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I never got much more than two years out of my male Apistogramma cacatuoides, some of the females made four years old.

I think if you keep them cooler (mine were at ~27oC) they last longer.

cheers Darrel

 

[Miss ATV]

A week later and his eyes got better, one is still cloudy but the other has cleared. I have not done anything except changed their diet on full Repashy with Igapo Explorer & Community plus additional to Soilent Green.

I am now guessing it could have been something in the water which escaped me or injury

 

[MacZ]

The Igapo explorer definitely has a better mix. I'm a bit confused though and asking myself whether you got my recommendation right. I originally meant soilent green and the pellets were not optimal for Apistogramma.

But it points to some deficiency that has been evened out now. For the other eye indeed an injury is possible.

About the water: Have you checked GH and KH?

 

[Miss ATV]

The Igapo explorer definitely has a better mix. I'm a bit confused though and asking myself whether you got my recommendation right. I originally meant spoilent green and the pellets were not optimal.

But it points to some deficiency that has been evened out now. For the other eye indeed an injury is possible.

About the water: Have you checked GH and KH?

Looking at the list of ingredients on Soilent Green vs say Frozen glasworms - I thought you meant it's much better. I do apologize if I misunderstood as English is not my first language and some expressions I would understand completely opposite of what they actually mean.

At the moment I will carry on 2 x Igapo Explorer 2 x Community Plus 2 x Soilent Green and then 1 day perhaps I could do a break. I do seem to have them all looking much better in the past week and not carrying long faeces like they used to sometimes carry after the foods I was feeding before.

 

[Miss ATV]

Looking at the list of ingredients on Soilent Green vs say Frozen glasworms - I thought you meant it's much better. I do apologize if I misunderstood as English is not my first language and some expressions I would understand completely opposite of what they actually mean.

At the moment I will carry on 2 x Igapo Explorer 2 x Community Plus 2 x Soilent Green and then 1 day perhaps I could do a break. I do seem to have them all looking much better in the past week and not carrying long faeces like they used to sometimes carry after the foods I was feeding before.

Gh 16 kH 14 on API kit. it's how it comes on tap

 

[MacZ]

Looking at the list of ingredients on Soilent Green vs say Frozen glasworms - I thought you meant it's much better. I do apologize if I misunderstood as English is not my first language and some expressions I would understand completely opposite of what they actually mean.

At the moment I will carry on 2 x Igapo Explorer 2 x Community Plus 2 x Soilent Green and then 1 day perhaps I could do a break. I do seem to have them all looking much better in the past week and not carrying long faeces like they used to sometimes carry after the foods I was feeding before.

All good, I'm also not a native speaker.

What I meant: Apistogramma mainly need frozen food and even better live food.

The reason the change has first shown some improvement is that repashy has a lot of extra vitamins and minerals. Which is not bad, but they also have quite a lot of carbohydrates, which are detrimental to Apistogramma long term. Usually leads to liver problems. Your other fish should not have much problems.

Gh 16 kH 14 on API kit. it's how it comes on tap

Not optimal, but ok for A. cacatuoides. No need to change anything about that.