Emporer angel problem

[brookers]

hi guys, had my emp for over a year now with no probs. his growth and adult transformation has been great but over the last month ive noticed his eyes going cloudy. is this something to worry about ? is it permanant ?
my water quality isnt to bad, although no3 is up to 20 after i switched my skimmer off whilst on holiday about 6 weeks ago
your thoughts would be much appreciated. thanks in advance !

[Gary Majchrzak]

do you feed any sponge based foods?

[brookers]

no i dont as my lfs doesnt have anything with sponge in it. Have to admit ive changed to mostly flake or pellet since my holiday to try and get no3 down, before i was feeding cockle, squid, mysis, brine, muscle, krill as well as nori and flake. could this switch be the reason ?
what sponge based food do you recommend ?
thanks, Paul.

[Gary Majchrzak]

do they sell frozen Ocean Nutrition cubes over there?
ON manufactures an Angelfish formula with sponge in it.

[brookers]

thanks gary, i will ask next time im in the store.

i take it from your response you think the reason for the eye problem is the lack of sponge in my emps diet ?

[Gary Majchrzak]

I do think it's problem is dietary related.

[Crazy One]

Maybe not enough oxygen in the water ? I would probably do a small water change and feed him with some frozen brine and soak it with some vitamins untill the frozen cubes thaw out.
I thought I read somewhere that if there is any type of ammonia spike the eyes are the first thing to respond to it.
Hope that helps and your Emperor gets better.

[brookers]

thanks guys, will sort the diet. maybe oxygen has dropped a bit as ive been dosing vodka for 5 weeks now.

[Recty]

Have you added any new fish in the last couple months?

Cloudy eyes can be a sign of flukes which can come in on other angels and tangs, or any fish for the matter but primarily they seem to be hosted by angels/tangs.

[brookers]

no i havent bought any fish for the last 6 months. i'm getting a bit concerned now because ive just fed my tank and hes having trouble seeing the food, so he didnt get much. i feed him in the morning by hand and hes unable to see my fingers.
i will do a 100ltr water change tomorrow. will try and get some sponge based food as well as some vitamins.
do you think his condition can be reversed ? anybody experienced this with any of there angels ? thanks in advance.

[LisaD]

his growth and adult transformation has been great but over the last month ive noticed his eyes going cloudy.

ive been dosing vodka for 5 weeks now

perhaps vodka dosing should stop for now?

what are all your water parameters - pH, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, temperature

what are the tankmates? any changes in behavior, such as any increased aggression?

also, you didn't mention the size of the angel or the tank. Is it possible that in one year he has outgrown your tank and is now feeling stress due to tank no longer being big enough?

Edit: noticed on your profile you list 6 x 2 x 2 reef. Is that what you have the angel in?

[Recty]

It probably wouldnt hurt to treat your tank with Prazipro, it will kill off flukes if that is the issue. Do you have any feather dusters or worms in your tank?

If it's FOWLR, you should be totally fine with Prazipro, if your a full blown reef you should still be fine, but I hate dosing anything in a reef tank.

I agree it could be diet based, but in that instance I would think it would slowly deteriorate, not just real quickly get cloudy eyes and stop being able to see at all.

Are all other fish in the tank doing good?

I agree with doing a big water change, that will not hinder anything at least and usually a water change helps, especially if it's some unknown substance in your water that is causing it.

[brookers]

hi lisa, hes in a 180 with a 6 inch regal tang and other small stuff.
i think your right, i'll stop the vodka

no2 - 0
no3 - 20
ammonia - 0
ph - 8 - 8.2
temp - 77
salt - 024

nothing has changed for the last 6 months apart from no3 rising to 20 from 5 when i switched my skimmer off to go on my hols. although he has grown to dominate my tank there are no other aggression going on
all other fish are fine.

[Monkeyfish]

I had a similar issue when I started dosing Vodka. I also noticed that the Emp lost some of his appetite. This went away after about 2 weeks - Emperor returned to eating/appearing normal. I've always found that my Emperor angel was more sensitive to changes in water chemistry than my other fish.

[brookers]

thanks for the advice everyone, i really appreciate it !

[LisaD]

good luck, and let us know how it turns out!

[Crazy One]

Does your Emperor show any types of stress like faded lines or patches? Mine will do that if he becomes stressed even after a water change or moving around any of the live rock. Also if you are going to treat with Prazi-pro make sure that you turn off the skimmer so it don't overflow and pull it out as soon as you dump it in there, but I would run some type of air stone in the sump if you have one. And if you have to target feed him with some Rods food untill his immune is back to normal and he recovers. Hope that helps.

[brookers]

[QUOTE=Crazy One;15997839]Does your Emperor show any types of stress like faded lines or patches?

yes he is looking a bit patchy at the mo, could be down to re-scapeing my rockwork recently. i dont really want to treat the tank with chemicals bacause of my corals.
i'm going to do a 100ltr water change in a minute. i've not added vodka today
and i will try and sort something out with sponge in it when i get a chance to get to a fish store, hopefully things will improve !

[pbnj]

Over the past year, I had angel with cloudy eyes develop a bacterial infection and die and another angel got cloudy eyes, but it simply cleared up. Point is: Who knows. :)