Bulging eye - Starcki damsel

[brett559]

So my starcki damsel has been in my tank for about 3-4 months. Doing fine - eating well, not bothering anyone. I noticed this morning that one of his eyes is really bulging. His other eye is fine.

So I dosed 100ml of Epsom salt (7 tablespoons) this morning. He's still eating fine. Anything else I should try? He'd be tough to catch, I imagine.

Got him from Diver's Den, so he wasn't cheap.... :eek1:

 

[Pericyte]

I had this happen to a dwarf flame angel, I don't think it was a bacterial or fungal infection, i think he just hit his eye on something. It got bad for a while, I wish I had a picture (bulged out a lot and got worse before it got better), but after about a month of no treatment (left in the DT) it went back to normal.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

It's injury. Should heal within 10-14 days.

 

[Moort82]

Same happened with my starcki whend it first went in and the clowns chased it. So knowing it was injury and not bacterial I left it alone and it healed in the time frame suggested above. I did monitor for signs of a bacterial infection after.

 

[PilotMaximus]

For my own education how does one tell the difference between injury and illness?

 

[ThRoewer]

Had the same thing with one of mine (it ran into a longspine urchin).
Went away within 2 days without any treatment.

As for how to tell injury from disease/water issues:
with injury generally only one eye is affected and it appears suddenly.
with disease or water quality issues usually both eyes are affected and the bulging may happen more gradually.

 

[Moort82]

For my own education how does one tell the difference between injury and illness?

Added to the above you may also be able to see a gas bubble in the eye and cloudiness in both eyes.