Emergency! What's happening to my clownfish?

[zmazza]

I have a pair of occellaris clowns that I bought last March. They have both been doing very well, and have been some of the most active members of my tank. It's a reef tank with a few zoanthids and about 80 lbs of live rock. The clowns are in the tank with a yellow watchman goby, fire fish goby, two peppermint shrimp, a blue damsel, and a yellowtail damsel. The yellow tail has been in the tank longer than the clowns, and the blue damsel has been in the tank for about a month. No aggression issues have been seen.

Yesterday I noticed one of my clownfish hugging the bottom of the tank, resting on the substrate. I got a closer look last night and it looks like both of his eyes are starting to come out. They've turned a dark black color and seem very, very red towards the front of his "face".

When I put him in the bag, the only quarintine that I have (He went in last night at 10:00pm EST) he started becoming more active. He seems to be breathing fine, but didn't want to swim. Could he be going blind? What's the best course of action? I'm not sure if it's contagious, so he's in a large bag with a lot of air and enough water to give him some room to swim. He's floating in the tank right now. If you think he's going to be OK, I'll call my wife and have her release him back into the tank. I don't want to risk my other fish, but I have no idea what's going on or what could have happened!

Please help!!

 

[Hattie B]

Can you make the pics bigger?

 

[Hattie B]

I think the little part that I can see is he might have popeye

and if he does don't net the little guy and don't let him rub his eyes on the side of the bag.

If is is popeye, it usually clears up on its own. How is your water quality? Poor, less then optimal is usually associated with popeye.

Also, you need to watch for seconary infections if this is popeye. (I think it is, it usually looks like the fish eye is coming out of its socket/head but in reality its really swollen)

 

[zmazza]

It looks very swollen. When I first saw it, it looked like he had cut his eye very badly, but the other one is just like it. We recently did a large water change, but the other fish are doing great and showing no signs of bad water quality. I've got several corals and featherdusters as well, and all those are doing fine. I haven't tested due to my test reagants going bad, but I figured the others would be doing bad if he was.

His eyes look so swollen they look like they are about to pop out. I assumed pop eye, but wasn't sure. What's the best course of action? Should I put him back in the aquarium? I have a spare 10 gallon that I can empty the water out of, but I don't have any salt readily mixed for it. The only filtration option if I am going bare bottom is a pengiun 200 that I have laying around. It doesn't have any media with established bacteria though.

What should I do? He's one of my first saltwater fish and I hate for anything to happen to him.

Sorry about not being able to make the pictures bigger. I use my cell phone camera and while I can zoom in on the pictures on the phone and get a clear view, I'm unable to make them bigger without severely losing picture quality.

 

[Hattie B]

HI,

Ok, then if he is like you describe and I can see the swelling slightly from the picture so I am sure its pretty bad in person.

You can either let him go in your tank or put him in a QT it is up to you. Personally, with popeye, I would leave him in the tank as catching them can cause damage to the eyes with a net, I know you have him in a bag so it is up to you. I just would not leave him in the bag as you don't want him to rub his eyes on the sides plus i am sure its stressful.

Also, popeye is not a disease but a condition. So I would add vitamines to every feeding to help.

Also test your water and see if anything is off. And correct if necessary.

If this was cause by an abrasion or trauma it could lead to a bacterial infection too.

You might consider adding a broad spectrum antibotic to the food too, something like kanamycin. It is a gram negative antibiotic; most bacterial infections are cause by gram negative bacteria in SW.

Either way, more often then not popeye will go away with good eater quailty, good feeding.

I will let you know, that in a sever enough case it can cause a lot of damage to the eye. I currently have a 1 eyed skunk that I received that lost an eye to it but that is an extreme case.

Good luck. Feed well, keep good water quality, check levels and think about adding kanamycin.

HB

 

[zmazza]

Where can I purchase the vitamins and the gram negative antibiotic? And can you use those in a display tank? My clowns are very easy to get out of the tank. I wet my hands, they swim into my hands, and I just scoop them out. I don't even have to use a net. So It should be OK to put him back in the tank? Both eyes have it, so I'm pretty sure it's not due to a scrape.

Can I get the vitamins or the antibiotic at wal-mart? It's the only store that sells fish supplies within an hour. There is a petco in cleveland though, but not sure if they have it. The Aquarium is about an hour drive, and I wouldn't be able to make it up there til this weekend.

Are the vitamins and antibiotics expensive?

They eat primarily formula one or formula reef. What's the best way to add the antibiotic or vitamin to flake? And will the antibiotic or vitamin harm my zoanthid corals or other fish?

Thanks a bunch for the help.

 

[Hattie B]

kanamycin might be harder for you to find if there is not a lot of stuff around.

I have purchaed a lot of stuff from nationalfishpharm.com you could look there.

There is also maracyn 2 (a gram negative antibiotic) that might be easier to find, I think local shops like PetSmart have it.

Zoe, Selecon I have always purchased from the LFS. but I am sure you can order it anywhere. if you cant get is locally. (its a good idea to get it and add it to the food on a regular basis, just for good health).

If you can catch him that easy then I would let him go and if you can watch him for a few minutes just to make sure nothing is harrassing him. you just don't want the eyes to be rubbing on the bag, plus more often then not popeye will clear up with good wq.

The first thing to do it good husbandry.. Good husbandry is a place to start.

I know you posted you just did a WC and everything else looks fine but popeye if not caused by an abrasion or the like usually is caused by poor water quality. could be something got out of whack, it doesn't really matter, you just know he has the condition and needs to get better.

I am not sure if wal-mart has it? If you get anything there, make sure it is for SW, fresh water antibotics and supplements are different and do not work the same in SW.

expensive? depends on where you get it i suppose but in reality the bottles (I use items made by Kent) are pretty cheap as you don't use that much and you have small fish).

The antibotics, differ, if I remember correct the maracyn 2 is the pretty cheap..

But, the cheapest thing is good water quality. =)

 

[zmazza]

Good water quality is definitely cheap. I use tap water, and it's worked for the past year with no problems what so ever. I'll have my water tested until I can get some new reagants. Is it odd that the other fish aren't getting popeye? Or is he just suceptible?

I'll check on those antibiotics.

As far as the water quality... We used to do water changes every few months... everything worked out great... we had a bubble tip anemone that started to go down hill so we went back to monthly. We've been doing that for the past 2 months.

I rearranged the tank the last water change quite a bit. I even added some base rock that I had laying around.

I'll try and get those parameters and repost them. I'll go ahead and put him in the tank and try my best to stay on top of my water quality. Hopefully it will clear on it's own like you said. I just wanted to make for certain it wasn't contagious or going to affect my other fish. I'll keep you posted.

I'll also check out those vitamins as well as the antibiotic.

Thanks a lot for all your help!

 

[Hattie B]

sure, no problem.

popeye is not contagious as its not a disease but a condition.

so your other fish and other clown are not going to catch it.. Which is good.

Yes, let me know how he does.