Eye Infections

It has been our experience that bacterial infections can affect the eyes of goldfish and koi, though we've seen it more often in koi.  Eye infections, if left alone without treatment, can kill the fish and, if it doesn't kill the fish it can make the koi go blind.  We've seen this happen many times.

How to Recognize, Treat and Prevent Eye Infections in Your Koi or Goldfish Pond

Sometimes the only way you can tell if your koi or goldfish have an eye infection is if the eyes on several fish (most often koi) suddenly appear to have a white cloudy film covering one or both eyes.  Your koi or goldfish will sometimes not show any other symptoms or even look stressed.  They may eat normally.  They may, however, swim strangely, bumping into the side of the tank or pond. 

Treating Eye Infections

Luckily it's pretty easy to treat eye infections.  Use FuBa Fix, being careful not to run it through the biological filter so you won't kill your nitrifying bacteria.  Feed the fish triple antibiotic food for about two weeks during the treatment.  To facilitate the healing treat all affected fish (you might want to do ALL the fish) with Tricide Neo.  If only one or two fish show the tell-tell signs of eye infections (cloudy white filming over one or both eyes) it's best to remove them from the population into a quarantine tank and watch the other koi and goldfish closely.  If more than a couple of the fish come down with the infection it's best to treat all the fish.

Treatment Regimen

1. Remove any affected fish to a quarantine tank or make the decision to treat the whole pond.
2. Begin Tricide Neo treatments.  Dip all affected koi and goldfish.
3. Begin feeding with triple antibiotic food.  Keep them on a diet of JUST triple antibiotic food for about two weeks.
4. Treat the quarantine tank AND the pond with FuBa Fix to "clean" the environment.
5. Keep the quarantine tank and/or pond salted at .3% non-iodized salt to promote faster healing for at least two weeks.

What to Expect Next

The eye infection, itself, will not generally kill the koi but complications such as ulcer disease will.  The infection can cause temporary and sometimes permanent blindness.  Watch all the koi and goldfish closely during the following weeks to make sure ulcers do not pop up.

Preventing Eye Infections

Quarantine any new arrivals and make sure they do not bring in the infection which spreads quickly and easily from one fish to another.  Do not overcrowd the pond or holding tank. 

More Information About Bacterial Diseases

• How to Prevent Spring Disease Outbreaks in Koi & Goldfish
• Battle of the Bacteria

Items You Might Need:

Triple Antibiotic Food

Doc's Pure Salt

Tricide-Neo

Fungus/Bacterial Treatment
Pond Fizz Tabs

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