Clown with popeye

[ransomed4ever]

I've got a clown with poeye eye in one eye. It was fine earlier today and i went out of town for about 5 hours and when I came home one eye was huge. It doesn't appear to be cloudy. The fish is actually behaving pretty normally too. Any idea what the cause might be and how to treat it?

 

[ransomed4ever]

Anyone? really hope to save it, it is my female and the pair seem to be getting close to spawning. Probably my 2 favorites.

 

[billsreef]

Usually just a single fish with one eye affected is due to physical injury. To start with, just watch it closely as it might heal on it's own. If it doesn't start looking any better in a day or two, or if it starts looking any worse, than it's time to treat. In that case, set up a seperate hospital tank and treat with either Nitrofuran or Maracyn 2.

 

[limitdown]

I usually watch popeye for a few days to see if it gets better on its own, however, if it worsens, then I move the fish to a QT and treat with an antibiotic.

In my early days, I waited too long twice and had 2 fish lose 1 eye each to popeye. Very sad.

I liken popeye to humans getting cuts that get infected. Sometimes the body is able to fight off the infection by itself, but sometimes the infection worsens and turns into gangrene and you're forced to amputate.

 

[Richido71]

HEllo, does it looks like this:
http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj118/Richido71/DSC00177.jpg

cause i just have this problem with my false percula.

 

[ransomed4ever]

I can't really tell in your pic the angle isn't quite right to see. If the eye is basically protuding or swollen then yes. Mine is in much worse shape then yours for sure.

 

[ransomed4ever]

Good news and bad news.
Bad news is the eye didn't get better in the display after a few days. It acutally got worse. I don't think it can see out of it, so it kept bumping it into things, mostly other fish during feeding time.
good news is it is still eating like a pig, and I was finally able to catch it and get it into the hospital tank. I really didn't like the thought of netting it, because I didn't want to cause more damage, but it was too smart for the fish trap. I had absolutely no luck trying to net it during the day, it was just too fast and would go inot the rocks. I finally got it after lights out by just using abient light from the adjoining room for me to be able to see, and I netted it from the blind side. It did jump from the net 2x, but luckily right back into the tank. Now its in QT with Maracyn 2, so hopefully things work out. I think it may be a little late for the eyesight, but hopefully it will pull through otherwise. Seeing as how this is my first experience with having to hospitalize a fish I have to say I hope I never have to again.