angelfish with pop eye of some sort

Andrew_x

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Oct 11, 2009
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Kansas City, MO
i've tried for an hour to get a picture to no avail.

water params as follows:

temp: around 81 F

ph: 6.5

ammonia: 0

nitrite: 0

nitrate: <10

gh: 2

kh: 4

just noticed today that one of my angelfish has what i assume is pop eye. i'll keep trying for a picture, but can't get him to turn the correct way. it's on the right eye and it's popped out with a red ring around the "base," for lack of a better word, of the eye. :dk:

water changes are every other day. r/o water with api proper ph 6.5 and 5 ml of r/o right added per 5 gallons. all fish in the tank are healthy as can be as far as i know.

i've gotten the quarantine tank set up but not sure if i should use it yet or not, so i need to know: what should i do? do i use the qt tank or just wait it out for a while? if i do use the qt, what meds should i use? i have malefix and pimafix on hand, but could get something else if need be.

i don't know if it's an injury or some type of infection. none of the fish in the tank show any signs of illness, and i keep on top of water changes and water chemistry pretty well.

any advice is greatly appreciated. let me know if there're any more questions that need answered.


thanks,
andrew
 

Irene0100

UK Support Team
May 14, 2009
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oh dear, pop-eye is very difficult,
I have had it in blue rams but it did not spread to other fish, but I lost the ram eventually.
sounds like you are looking after it ok as the most common cause is poor water.
do you have a deep substrate which needs a good hoover?
sometimes it is a weakness form poorly bred fish (hormone bred in bulk )
have you had him very long?
 

Doodles

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Apr 8, 2009
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Sometimes if its just one eye it can be caused by an injury, if this is the case then it should sort out itself unless a bacterial infection sets in.

Should do some water changes and if no improvement you could try maracyn/maracyn 2 together, medicated food could be a better option if still eating and you don't want to treat the whole tank.


Do you warm up the RO water before adding?
Are the buffers keeping the ph etc stable?
 

Andrew_x

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Oct 11, 2009
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Kansas City, MO
irene, doodles, thanks for the quick responses and info; it's greatly appreciated.

is maracyn/maracyn2 safe for plecs? and what kind of medicated foods are available? i didn't know they had such a thing. i'll look into it for sure though.

i've had him (or her, not sure) for, heck, 5, 6 months maybe? maybe longer even longer than that, and haven't ever had much trouble with him.

the tank has about an inch to an inch and a half of gravel in the bottom and an ugf, but i vacuum the bottom every time i do a water change, so there's never much debris. those damn clowns and the gold nugget can get it pretty messy if i don't stay on top of it. :wb:

i add about 3/4 gallon of boiling water to the bucket before i add it to the tank. sometimes add a little more if it isn't warm enough.

the ph is constantly 6.5, and all the other parameters come out the same as in the first post, so i assume all is well in the tank. if it gets worse, i'll have the qt ready to go. until then, i'll keep on top of the water and just keep a good eye on him.



thanks again,
andrew
 

Doodles

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The maracyns are safe for plecs but have been known to affect the filter bacteria, so would be an idea to move the angel if no improvement and you choose to use the maracyns

Theres a bacterial medicated food by jungle labs which is pretty cheap. The ingredients fight aeromonas which are usually responsible for bacterial popeye.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4615+4629+12788&pcatid=12788

The boiling water you add is RO?
 

Andrew_x

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Oct 11, 2009
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Kansas City, MO
cool, thanks for the info. i'll have to look into that. maybe keep some on hand just in case. And yes, I add boiling r/o; i don't mix the tap and r/o water just yet. too much experimenting to do there and haven't had the time to try it out.



andrew
 

Doodles

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No worries, was just worried you might of been using tap water and not adding dechlor.

Good luck, let us know how the angel gets on.

As long as the fish eat the food, medicated food is more effective than meds added to water, the most effective way to administer meds is via injection but obviously not something that fishkeepers should do, a vet would have to do that as far as i know.
 

Andrew_x

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Oct 11, 2009
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Kansas City, MO
wellllll, i just got home and the angel didn't make it. there's also a neon in the same tank that looks to be affected as well, but no redness around either eye, which are both pretty inflamed. it's also lost most of its color. it looks about the way they look when you first turn the light on in the early moning; just real pale. it also looks a bit bloated, and just hides out under the piece of driftwood. i almost wonder if something didn't get put in the tank when i wasn't around that may have caused this to happen?

the other 7 neons are bright and active, as are all the other fish in the tank. i'm just kinda at a loss. a bucket of r/o water is filling up as i type this, so hopefully this thing gets sorted out pretty quickly. i'm gonna go have a look at the lfs for some medicated foods and feed that to everything in the tank as a precaution. i don't really want to treat the whole tank with other meds if i don't have to, but it'd be hard to move just 1 neon to qt as that would add stress. any ideas?



thanks for everyone's help,
andrew


p.s. also just noticed a tiny "fuzzy" spot on the side of that neon it's relatively small. like the size of a pin head or something like that. how much does that change things? add an air stone and start up the fix it twins on the main tank or move it on over to the qt and go from there? does this mean the whole tank is infected or is it just a particular fish in the tank?
 
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Irene0100

UK Support Team
May 14, 2009
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oh dear sounds like it may be spreading so its in the water.
I would add some pimafix as this wont harm filter or anything, and might help.

Have you thought about UV, its more for prevention than cure, you can get neat little internal filters now with LED UV which are not expensive.
 

Doodles

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The spot, is it raised or just looks like fungus?

I would remove the neon asap, you can quarantine it and treat but i don't think it will make it. Even if you treat the main tank now, i would still remove the neon. Try not to let it die in the main tank.

Let us know how you get on at LFS
 

Andrew_x

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Oct 11, 2009
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Kansas City, MO
the spot is raised. and it looks like a line of scales on both sides along the length of his body is raised as as well, right where the belly would be separated from the back. just got him into the qt tank. he was a bit brighter today though.

at the lfs, they said maracyn/2 was my best bet, so i picked up a pack of each. i didn't see any medicated food so that's a bit out of the question for now. i could always check petsmart or another chainstore i suppose. i tell ya what those, i think these fish need to get some universal health care, or health insurance of some sort because these meds are adding up quickly!

i'm afraid to use the maracyn/2 in the main tank as i don't want to mess up the bio filter, so i'll go with pimafix as irene stated. should i also dose melafix at the same time? and would a large water change help, or should i stick with the daily 10%?

you guys are awesome, thanks for all the help.


andrew
 

Doodles

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The reason i asked about the spot was because of neon tetra dusease, theres some info here.

http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/neondisease.htm

Anyways, don't panic, as we aren't 100% sure of whats going on. I would do a 20-30% waterchange before treating with primafix plus use the melafix as well as they are more effective together. Add extra aeration and do the course of meds then do another water change. If anymore fish start showing any symptoms let us know asap:yes:


Also it may be worth trying the maracyns on the tetra in quarantine tank.
 

Andrew_x

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Oct 11, 2009
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Kansas City, MO
doodles, thanks for the link. it could be ntd, but not quite positive as bnone of the other neons are showing any signs. did come home to one dead neon today, stuck between a rock and the glass. it didn't show any signs of being sick, though; i think he just got stuck there.

there is other news, too! good and (potentially) bad.

first the good: the neon made it through the night in the qt with maracyn and maracyn 2. he has a little more color, but doesn't necessarily "look" any better physically other than that. so we shall wait and see. if he starts getting better, i'll let everyone know for sure. his excrement is also a combination of white and clear.

managed to get a decent picture where you can sort of see the symptoms i've been describing:



and the bad news... either my 2 clowns are little pigs, or they've got bloat, too. can't see any excrement at the moment, but both their bellies look really full. is cooked, shelled peas the best way to go here? and how would i ensure that they'd be eating them?

here's the picture of one:




when i dose the tank with the fix it twins, do i continue normal daily water changes or hold off for a week and do the 25% water change that it says on the bottle?


thanks for the help and i won't let the panic set in, as long as my gold nugget stays in good shape that is.



andrew
 

Doodles

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Are the clowns in same tank? they don't look too bad to me, clowns can be little fatties, but peas won't hurt, thy should routinely have them every week or so anyway.

I would do as it says on the bottle, then do the waterchange followed by daily water changes to help get rid of the meds and keep the water in good shape for a few days.
 

Andrew_x

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Oct 11, 2009
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Kansas City, MO
they are in the same tank. Sorry, I forgot to add that little bit of info into that last post. I'll get them some peas for sure then. Got the extra aeration goin in the main tank and pimafix and melafix treatment goin as well. We'll see where I get from here. Thanks so much!


andrew
 

Andrew_x

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Oct 11, 2009
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Kansas City, MO
well doodles, as you had expected the neon ended up croakin. the clowns seem to be doing fine, but i still haven't gotten around to getting the peas just yet. hopefully tonight! there's just not enough time in the day, it seems, between work,running errands, christmas shopping, and doing this and doing that. i know that's not an excuse, but it's the honest truth.

since starting the pimafix and melafix, all the fish in the tank have kind of perked up a bit; the two angels left were kind of laying down their fins, but now they're fully spread (i guess would be the term to use?). the tank's just a white cloud of tiny bubbles with the extra air stone and meds added. it's so weird to not be doing water changes every other day, though.

i'll keep everyone up to date but so far, so good.


andrew