[GillPlusLil]

My male CT betta (Gill) recently started showing a milky/cloudy eye and it has me concerned. I haven't treated him yet for anything cause it doesn't seem overly large area but is this a precursor to something worse?? He hasn't changed his behavior at all except for maybe being a little more "clingy" to my female betta in a non-aggressive way. I attached a photo, sorry for the poor quality. It is kinda hard to see the cloudiness. It only makes up a pin head size on his eye.




Housing
What size is your tank? 10 gallon
What temperature is your tank? 70-75 F
Does your tank have a filter? yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? no
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? Female betta, spotted catfish, 2 zebra danios, 2 black neon tetras

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Tetra Betta Mini tropical flakes
How often do you feed your betta fish? once a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? once a week 50% than 100% once a month
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? TopFin tap water de-chlorinater


Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Just his eyes
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? None at all
When did you start noticing the symptoms? two days ago-every week when I do a 50% water change I inspect my fish for abnormalities
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? No
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No. He's always been healthy
How old is your fish (approximately)? Bought him 11 months ago. Not sure of his age before that, but considering his size then and now, I'd say he's 1 1/2 to 2 years old.

 

[lilnaugrim]

Well there's some things that pop out to me that need to be remedied immediately and I apologize, this isn't an attack on your or anything! Just want to help keep your fish really healthy is all!

Heaters: all those fish you have are tropical fish, meaning they aren't rare or anything but it means they come from tropical places; think the Bahama's, nice and warm right? So your fish actually need temperatures up around 80 degree's, anywhere from 78-82 will be the best range for them.

Fish: What kind of catfish do you have? Most likely that catfish will actually outgrow your tank or it will become stunted which also means that it's lifespan will become shortened as well; early death.

Danios and Tetra's are both schoolers/shoaling fish which means they need to be with their own kind for safety reasons as well as social reasons. Each group needs to have at least 5 or more members so 5 Tetra's or 5 Danio's. However the issue here is that if you bumped up both your groups, you'd have a seriously over stocked tank which can lead to early deaths in your fish.

Danios are also very social but also very active swimmers, a group of danio's should not be in a tank that is less than 36 inches long, they need lots of space. So something that I would suggest is the bring back or adopt out your Danio's to someone with a bigger tank or give them to a local PetCo and them get 3 more Black Tetra's to bump up your group to keep them happy and healthy.

The next BIGGEST thing and the, I mean, THE biggest No-No in Betta worlds; you have a male and female together. I don't care how long you've had them together for, one day one of them is going to snap and kill the other. I'm sorry but that is the honest truth and I would either get the male out or the female out and either get a 1 gallon or whatever, a smaller tank to keep him or her in. A Betta fish is fine in a community tank but keeping them together other than for breeding purposes is highly risky and if you didn't want to lose one or both, I would HIGHLY suggest you get them separated now for the sake of them and you :-(

Okay and onto your boy now; is it his left eye or right eye in the picture? It looks like his right eye on the picture (our right) looks like he's got some Cataracts going on which there's nothing to cure for that, just happens. However if it's the left eye, it looks more cloudy I think and clean water will really help that. You can start doing twice weekly water changes at 50% to help clear that up.

 

[GillPlusLil]

I keep their water really clean and it looks like that in both eyes. As for the heater, I usually have one but the one I was using broke last week and I ordered and I'm waiting for the new one, so currently that's the water temp, but not normally. As for the issues of my female and male betta, I hear that all the time from people, and the two times I separated them they refused to eat and starved themselves for five days before I put them back together and they started eating again. Betta's are betta's but each are unique in some way and this just happens to be what makes mine different. They've been together 10 months and I've never hard a problem I've had all the fish listed above for no less than 10 months together and they are the world to one another and I've never had any illness or issues in my tank but I appreciate the advice and concern!

I agree it looks like it's just his cataracts but I just wanted to make sure in case anyone had seen this before and saw in progress into a more severe issue! in the photo btw it's his left eye that's on our right. I know the picture quality is awful, I just didn't want the camera to flash and had to turn on lamp next to the tank that has a yellow hue so the whole picture looks strange but I had just finished a 100% water change the day before so the water quality was crystal clear and healthy for everyone.

Thank you for your reply! I'll be keeping a closer eye on him just in case!

 

[GillPlusLil]

Also, as for giving up my fish because the statistics say they are not supposed to be in a school under five is not an option for me. I've had them for almost a year now with zero issues and intend on keeping them because they are no less special to me than my betta's. I would never dream of telling someone to give up a fish they've had for almost a year. It's unthinkable I have such few fish between my two tanks because of the apartment complex I live in so each one is very precious to me. My unusual method of keeping my fish is something many people have brought forth to my attention and again, I thank you for your input but I know my fish! no offense ^_^

 

[lilnaugrim]

Not trying to offend you but that's just the way it is. I don't care how long you've had them or anything, it's just not healthy for the fish. If anything I think it'd be better to upgrade your tank so you could support a school of each so they could be happier. It's astounding the difference it makes.

I'm not saying this is my opinion or anything, these are facts, cold hard facts that we've proven over and over. Now if you chose to ignore them and go on your merry way, that's your choice and I won't stop you but I was simply giving you the facts to give these fish a happy and healthy life.

I will leave it at that.

 

[GillPlusLil]

I felt I should update, Gill and Lil are perfect and happy as are all my other fish. I'm proud to announce after being so chastised for having a male and female together....I have recently added a SECOND (gasp) female betta! She was a rescue from a friend who wasn't able to treat her for an illness so I cured her and Lil and Jill are best friends and Gill loves sleeping between them (my stud ;D).