Hawkfish with cloudy eye/bulging?

[Amybolton2]

If a fish just has one cloudy eye, it is usually due to an injury. With two cloudy eyes, either the fish was REALLY unlucky and got banged up twice, or it has Neobenedenia flukes. Flame hawks are very susceptible to Neo, so that would be my best guess.

You can try Prazipro in your tank, dosed 3 times, 8 days apart, with good aeration, but Neobenedenia is tough to kill off because the eggs are resistant to drugs. I've had my best success by running all of the fish at half salinity (1.012) for 30 days. Of course, you can't do that with invertebrates in the tank,

Should I try FW dipping him, would they show in the water?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

is there a good chance this would have already passed to the other fish? or if I get him out now I could potentially stop the spread?

Impossible to say for sure, but a person I know did a study and determined that even a single egg can begin a new infection, so in all likely hood, you'll need to treat all of the fish (not all species catch this disease though).

 

[Amybolton2]

@Jay Hemdal Just moving his rock out the way to try and catch him.. it almost looks as if the bad eyes that's swollen and cloudy is peeling off?

 

[Amybolton2]

Moved him to a separate tank so able to see him much better now.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Moved him to a separate tank so able to see him much better now.

Darn - I didn't realize you were going to move this fish - that would have been a good time to try a 5 minute freshwater dip - that's the best way to determine if the issue is Neobenedenia or not. The Neo flukes are so large, they can be seen in the bottom of the container after the dip.

 

[Amybolton2]

Just did a FW dip on him for 5 minutes.
Nothing came out / is at the bottom of the container.

His eye looks like whatever cloudy covering was on it is peeling of? Doesn’t look super pretty.

Figuring because I didn’t see any flukes I should use the antibiotics? Or do a fluke treatment anyway? Not sure what action to take now

Darn - I didn't realize you were going to move this fish - that would have been a good time to try a 5 minute freshwater dip - that's the best way to determine if the issue is Neobenedenia or not. The Neo flukes are so large, they can be seen in the bottom of the container after the dip.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Just did a FW dip on him for 5 minutes.
Nothing came out / is at the bottom of the container.

His eye looks like whatever cloudy covering was on it is peeling of? Doesn’t look super pretty.

Figuring because I didn’t see any flukes I should use the antibiotics? Or do a fluke treatment anyway? Not sure what action to take now

Yes, I think you should consider starting antibiotics in the water - if you did not see tiny oval things in the bottom of the dip, then the fish doesn't have Neo.

You could use Maracyn 1, that seems to help with a lot of fish eye problems.