# White Eye? What is wrong with Philson?



## mynameiskcdc (Jan 26, 2011)

Housing 
What size is your tank? 1 gallon
What temperature is your tank? I've raised it to 82 degrees to help fin rot
Does your tank have a filter? yes, though it is currently without the carbon filter part due to the use of Melafix.
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? The water falling from the filter is my form of aeration.
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None, just some gravel and plastic plants.

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Aqueon Betta Food pellets, and sometimes Tetra freeze dried bloodworms or deshelled peas.
How often do you feed your betta fish? twice a day. Usually about 4-5 pellets each time (they're very small pellets).

Maintenance 
How often do you perform a water change? about 3 times a week, I do a 30% every other day due to Philson's fin rot treatment.
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 30%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? It depends on the amount of water being changed. Usually, with the 30%, I add 4 drops of TetraAqua AquaSafe and two pinches of aquarium salt.

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia: ?
Nitrite:?
Nitrate:?
pH:7.2
Hardness:?
Alkalinity: ?

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? His right eye has this white cloudyness on it. I can't tell if it is in or over his eye. There also appears to be a white clear very small pimple thing protruding from the center of his eye. The eye itself does not protrude and his left one is completely normal.

How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Nope, he's still as active as ever, creating bubble nests all over his tank.

When did you start noticing the symptoms? Well, about 5 days ago I noticed a small portion of white on this eye, but this morning I saw that his whole eye was taken over by it. (I've only had him for about a week and a half).

Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Well, last Thursday (1-27-2011) I began treating him for fin rot with Melafix. This was before I noticed the white dot, though he could have had it before I bought him and I just didn't notice.

Does your fish have any history of being ill? Just fin rot.

How old is your fish (approximately)? Meh... I don't know. I just got him from petsmart two weekends ago. He's probably not very old, because he can't swallow quite a few brands of pellets (which is why he has the tiny Aqueon food, I even have to tear the blood worms in two before he can eat them.)


Ok. So I've been doing some research, but it could be so many things. It could be Ich, or popeye (which I really don't think it is, as his eye hasn't grown in size), he could have a cataract or be blind in that eye. He also just could have nicked it on his heater or a plant or something. Could it be a reaction to the Melafix? I just don't really know what to do to help him, or if he even needs to be helped... HELP!


----------



## mynameiskcdc (Jan 26, 2011)

*Some Pictures*

These aren't the best, but you can see his eye.


----------



## JKfish (Apr 8, 2010)

okay, I see several things wrong right off the bat that you should fix.

Finrot is bacterial, so it grows faster in higher temps. Keep the temp range at the typical 76-80 degrees.

Secondly in a one gallon tank, you should be doing 100% water changes every other day. Because he has finrot, I'd up that to 100% every single day. 

I'm not sure how much a pinch of salt for you is, but if you want to treat with salt, you need to have 1 tsp per gallon. 

The best way to get rid of finrot is clean, clean water, IMO, melafix might actually do more harm than good.

the white eye sounds like pop eye due to bad water quality. Just keep up with 100% water changes daily until he gets better, then you can get back to the normal 100% every other day. Oh, and aquarium salt is only recommended for about 10 days of use, then after that you need to stop.

Good luck with your fish


----------



## turtle10 (Dec 30, 2010)

Also, those plants look really hard and I can see horizontal bars on his body.


----------



## mand (Nov 19, 2010)

One of my males had the same thing. It looks like a cloudy cone over the eye but the eye never grows like in popeye. 
I upped the water changes and it has now started to go away, still cloudy but no longer pointed in the centre. I have a 10 gallon divided tank with a filter and i started doing 50% water changes 3 times a week. It has taken about 10 days for mine to start disapearing.
If you only have a 1 gallon tank i'd do 100% water changes each day.


----------



## mynameiskcdc (Jan 26, 2011)

What do horizontal bars mean?


----------



## peaches3221 (Jun 1, 2010)

I think the bars mean stress... sorry I cant help you more idk much about pop eye


----------



## turtle10 (Dec 30, 2010)

Those bars are called stress bars. They should go away once he is healthy and warm.


----------



## mynameiskcdc (Jan 26, 2011)

Ok, thanks! I'm new on the betta scene, so I really appreciate all of your help


----------



## turtle10 (Dec 30, 2010)

No problem. We were all new once


----------



## mynameiskcdc (Jan 26, 2011)

Just checking in! 
Little Philson is doing fabulously well. I did 100% water changes every day and in four days all signs of pop eye were gone. I really think it was the Melafix that was irritating him. His fin rot is also disappearing, and the stress bars are gone! He seems just as happy as can be. Thanks again for all of your help


----------



## turtle10 (Dec 30, 2010)

Yay, you saved him! Thanks for the update, we don't have to worry about him anymore!


----------

