white spots on eye

[gypsy3]

hi all ...some advice please one of my heckles developed a white spot right on the lower back of his eye a couple of days ago. i now notice that there seems to be a white stringy substance about 1 and a 1/2 mm coming out of it. have just noticed that 3 white spots have appeared today on his other eye, about the same position, lower back of the eye. can anyone advise what this may be and how to treat it?

[Xtreme]

whats the ph of the system they r in

[gypsy3]

ph is 6.0 - 6.2

[samir]

change more water perhaps

[gypsy3]

i do 2 50%water changes p/w. all the other fish are fine.do you think isolating it and treating with metro would be the way to go? I had some phone advice from local lfs and they seemed to think it might be hex. do the symptoms and location (ie. around the eyes only) sound right?

[gypsy3]

oh, by the way. i noticed its faeces tonite and they seemed fine...no stringiness or whiteness.perfectly normal to my eyes

[samir]

how long has it been there ? a pic would be nice.

[Merrilyn]

Is it actually on the eye itself or is it on the skin behind the eye?

Any chance you can get a photo?

[apistodiscus]

My guess would be a worm or fluke of some sort. Treat with Flubenol or similar

[gypsy3]

sorry, i don't have a camera for pics, i know that makes it difficult.samir, the original spot would have been there 3 -5 days, the stringy substance 2 days. the 3 little spots on the other eye i only noticed yesterday, no growth coming out of them (yet, i guess), they're very tiny. merrilyn, the spots look like theyare on the ring of the eyes, but could be hard up against the ring of the eye, if you know what i mean

[Merrilyn]

gypsy3 are the white spots still there, or have they gone and left a hole behind?

It could still be the early stages of "Hole in the Head", just in an unusual place.

The spots usually start on the face and forehead and along the lateral line.

[gypsy3]

hi merrilyn.....the original spot seemed to clear up, but the others have not. Anyway, i've been in touch with a local vet, he thinks it's probably hex, so yesterday i treated the whole tank with metro, just to be safe. a couple of the other fish seemed to have a similar spot on them- just the one by the looks of it - and a couple of them have been dark for a while too. i believe that can also be a symptom. dunno if i'm being paranoid or not. Anyway, just thought i'd hit the lot of them. Only problem is, i forgot to turn the lights and the uv off. they were both on for about 5 hours before i realised i should have them off. Do you think that period of time would have affected the medication? It's a low lit tank, only about 200watts altogether. i'm redosing after 3 days. if the advice here is that the meds would have been affected, i'll restart the treatment from tomorrow. sorry about the long winded reply - to answer your question :0, things don't seem to be any worse, but they don't seem any better yet either.