HELP black percula with bulging eyeball!

[Texastravis]

To make a long story short I moved my beutiful 3 year old black percula from a 150 tp a temporary 30. In doing so detergent/soap got into the 30 gallon. I noticed 5 hours later he was freakin out. I quickly threw him into a 55 gallon reef without acclimation. H

e looked like he was going to die but 3 days later he looks "ok". His right eye is BULGING like a big goldfish. It looks aweful. I had a blue hippo with a bloated eye once but he got over it in a week. This bulging eye looks 10x worse though. What to do?

 

[JHemdal]

Texastravis,

This is pretty clearly a case of trauma-induced exopthalamus (popeye). It is suprisingly common. I don't know the exact cause, but it is seen in certain fish when they thrash back and forth too much when captured.
Can you post a picture? In most of these cases, the fish either gets better or it doesn't - despite any measures you might take. Since any handling of the fish requires the same circumstances that gave the fish the problem in the first place, the less handling the better!

Jay

 

[Texastravis]

Thanks Jay. I wil try to post some pics later when I get the camera out. I was thinking it was "popeye" but the last fish that I had this happen to didnt look this bad. Hopefully it will go away soon

 

[limitdown]

I keep a very close eye on popeye these days because things can go from bad to worse very quickly and the fish can lose one or both eyes. I usually do not remove the fish and treat immediately, but if after a few days the situation does not improve or if it deteriorates, then I will move to fish to a hospital tank and begin treating with an antibiotic such as minocycline (Mardel: Maracyn 2) or kanamycin (Seachem:Kanaplex).

 

[JHemdal]

limitdown,

Why would you consider using antibiotics in a case that is so clearly caused by mechanical trauma? Simply catching the fish up to move it to a QT tank will exacerbate the problem - moving the fish is what caused this problem to begin with - the fish is a 3 year, healthy captive. There was no mention of any inflammation, no external damage noted, and pending seeing some photographs, I see absolutely no indication that antibiotics are warranted in this case.

Jay