sick dempsey/new owner

[jackd]

I am a new owner of a jack dempsey as of 3-4 weeks ago and have become very attached. When we got him, we rescued him from a tank where he was being picked on by a larger dempsey. when we put him in his new tank he healed well untill he got red pimples on his fins. we treated him for a bacterial infection and they cleared up (used myracide-two). we quit treatments about a week ago. he became overly active for a while running into the glass and scraping on the bottom. all of a sudden he bacame listless and sat in the corner head up tail down hardly moving. now his eyes are cloudy/white, he's not moving and he seems blind as he can't find his favourite food when its right in front of him. he just snaps around and occasionally gets lucky. his colours look really nice... i don't know. i really don't want to loose him. i talked to a local fish vet and he said it may be stress... he is in a smaller tank, but is solo other then 2 feeders and 2 snails. any guesses?? popeye??

[emc7]

Sounds like "cloudy eye". How is the water quality? Often if you slow or stop water changes because your medicating, the ammonia, nitrite or nitrate can get out of hand. Change a lot of water and look at charts like this one
http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/fish_diseases/eyes.html
and search on "cloudy eye fish disease" images to try to identify whats wrong. Mild cloudy eye can go away with just very clean water, but it could be serious.

[jackd]

i think the water is clean, we just did a 50% water change right before this showed up and were wondering if that may have been the cause. we put "clean start" in there to keep ammonia and nitrate levels down. it seems pretty serious, as his eyes are VERY white and he can't seem to see hardly at all. could we need better filtration? is a 20 gallon tank way too small for one jack??

[emc7]

a 20 gallon tank way too small for one jack?

Yes, eventually. How big is he now? Eyes can heal but it can be a slow process. How white is very? Is it an intense white, kind of fuzzy? That could be fungus.

[jackd]

er... around 8 inches. i'm guessin tank size is a huge factor... but i'm on a bit of a budget untill next month. if its way too small i have a friend with a larger tank that can hold him untill i can get bigger. i want to do whats best for him. Anouther few questions are, will he infect other fish in there? and he is very aggressive (he's killed a full sized aggresive oscar in less then 6 hours). the other fish are his size and mean cichlids too, but in his weaker state will he stand up to them or still be a threat to them?
on the clouds.. it covers a good majority of the eye. i can't look at him right now as i'm at a diff location, but it was a good 3/4 as of earlier this afternoon. it's foggy, but looks more like a bubble on the eye then outward growth. internal not so much external. like undefined cataracs.
i looked up 'cloudy eye' and it said to treat with "gentamycin"? does that sound appropriate?

[emc7]

Any fish disease can be contagious, so if I were your friend I wouldn't take him until he's healthy. A blind fish could get beat up by other fish or just starve because they beat him to the food. I wouldn't have put that fish in that size tank except for quarantine or he was sick and needed medication and separation from other fish. So I think you are stuck with the 20 until he recovers or dies. In such a small tank, you water changes will need to be frequent.

gentamycin sounds like a specific anti-biotic. Odds are you won't find it at the store, you will have to ask advice or buy a product that claims to treat cloudy-eye. While you are at the store, ask if they will test your water, and post the numbers back here. You could also ask the eye question again in the disease section and wait for a response from TOS or other disease expert (I'm not). When you said there were feeders in with him, did you mean goldfish? How big are they? What have you been feeding him?