Help! My powder blue tang has a bubble in one eye!

[ReeFreak1]

Hi all. I am new to RC, but I have been doing a lot of reading in the past and found very informative and helpful posts. I hope someone could help me with my situation.

Anyway, I purchased a powder blue tang a month ago and it was in bad shape. I was willing to put tremendous effort to save the poor thing. It was very skinny, hid all the time, and barely ate. I battled skin flukes, Gill flukes, Fin and tail rot, and mouth deterioration in a QT tank with hypo setup. I won the battle rounds so far and got the fish pretty healthy. However, a week ago, after a FW bath, she appeared to be extra stressed and appeared to be blind for a couple of hours. The sight came back, but I noticed what appears to be an air bubble in one eye. This bubble has been growing steadily since that time. The cornea sticks out about an eighth of an inch now. Her eyeball is clear and in place and the bubble is just beneath the cornea forming a cone shape. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it, though I don't think she can see well in it. I don't know if this is Popeye, but I used Epsom salt today hoping the bubble would vanish.

Any information or suggestions on this case would be highly appreciated.

 

[Apotack]

I had a raccoon butterfly that had an eye problem that left it blind in one eye. Didn't bother the fish at all, lived like that for many years.

 

[ReeFreak1]

Thanks for the feedback Apotack. I read it is not life threatening. I still hope to be able to cure it though. It looks like a clear balloon attached to the eye. The eye ball is intact but the cornea is inflated. It might be a water bubble not air as I stated earlier. I can't tell. Epsom salt doesn't seem to change anything so far.

I have been raising salinity to get out of hypo for a week now. Could this be a reason?

I'm going to try and post pics.

 

[ReeFreak1]

Hopefully these photos are clear enough.

 

[Apotack]

Hard to tell from the pics. Is he eating and behaving normally?

 

[john08007]

Far from an expert but I would think if its swimming around normal and eating then it would be fine. I would think any attempt to fix it could cause more harm, you've already nursed it back from where it was, more than wouldve happened in the wild.

 

[ReeFreak1]

Loves eating Hikari seaweed extreme wafer and Hikari marine A pallet Apotack although Ammonia is creeping up on me now.

 

[ReeFreak1]

Good point john08007 you are absolutely right. I read threads suggesting to pop the bubble out with a syringe, but it doesn't sound kosher to me! Other than that it's very calm and eats well. No sign of stress. That took a lot of work and dedication.

 

[ReeFreak1]

The salinity stands at 1.023 now and I'm worried about putting it in DT. I had an ick attack a few months back, which I got under control. There are still very small traces of it creeping every now and then. My fish are immuned to it though but definitely not the pbt. Any ideas?

 

[ReeFreak1]

I have an idea but would like to get some opinions on it. I would like to circulate the water between my quarantine tank and sump. I will use a UV sterilizer to pump from sump to QT. The water will overflow from QT back to the sump. This way I get rid of the Ammonia battle in the QT and keep the fish long enough in there for the eye problem to cure. This would also prevents the pbt from getting infected with my DT ick. what do you all think?

 

[ReeFreak1]

Sorry about the pics Apotack. I hope these are more clear.

 

[Apotack]

Uv won't catch everything. I wouldn't suggest mixing QT water with display water. If you are ready to put him in the DT you could drip acclimate over an hour or two to bring salinity to where it belongs. If not I'd do a water change in the QT to bring the ammonia down

 

[kelrn98]

how do you plan to manage ich once the fish makes it to your DT if your DT is already infected with ich?

 

[slief]

First off, do not pop the bubble!

I have an Atllantic Tang that developed a similar issue. With good feeding and a bit of time, it should go away on it's own. In my tangs case, it got a case of pop eye after what I think was contact with my Fox Face. The pop eye went away on it's own and shortly after a bubble appeared in one of its eyes. After a couple weeks, the bubble disappeared.

Another cause of the appearene of bubbles in the eye is known as Gas Bubble Disease. While it's not what I consider a disease, it's reffered to it as such. It's typically caused by super saturation of oxygen or nitrogen in the water which then result in super saturated levels of oxygen or nitrogen in the fish. A rapid temp change or even salinity change can cause the O2 or No2 to expand resulting in the air bubbles in the eye and or under the skin. It's most likely that this was brought on by the fresh water dip but more likely as a result of your hyposality transition or both. Any changes to salinity should be done very very slowly over the course of several days if not more.

That said, it should go away on it's own and if this is the only symtom your fish has, just keep it well fed. While I didn't QT my tang, if you have a QT tank, it certainly wouldn't harm anything as long as the temp and salinity match so you don't stress it anymore. This condition isn't contagious so from that aspect you really have nothing to worry about.

Here is a bit more info on GBD as it pertained to a more severe case.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/8/fish

 

[ReeFreak1]

I thought UV sterilizer kills all forms of life. I must have been wrong Adam.

Mark

 

[ReeFreak1]

I already have 10 fishes which are pretty much immuned to ick Kelly. The only exception I have is with a Hippo Tang, which survived huge waves of ick I had in the past. There are small traces showing every now and then on the HT only. They go away after that. With that said, do you think pbt would be OK in DT? I'm consumed from nursing the pbt and I don't have enough energy to quarantine 10 other fishes for 8 weeks. I also have many invertebrates in my FOWLR setup.

 

[slief]

I already have 10 fishes which are pretty much immuned to ick Kelly. The only exception I have is with a Hippo Tang, which survived huge waves of ick I had in the past. There are small traces showing every now and then on the HT only. They go away after that. With that said, do you think pbt would be OK in DT? I'm consumed from nursing the pbt and I don't have enough energy to quarantine 10 other fishes for 8 weeks. I also have many invertebrates in my FOWLR setup.

Powder blues are very sensitive to ich and a little bit of stress coupled with the presence of ich in your display could be all it takes to infect the PBT.. That could have a snowball effect on your other fish too. Sadly, that is the risk you take with hippo's and PBT's as well as certain other tangs that are more sensitive to ich.

That said, your 10 fish are not immune to ich. Just because they haven't broken out in it doesn't mean they are immune. A high level of stress and or a sudden change in water temps is all it will take for them to break out in it. Especially if you have a fish in the tank such as your hippo that is a known carrier. Just be aware. Been there done that. For me, I avoid Hippo's and powder blues like the plague. Hippos especially. The one and only ich outbreak I had was caused by a powder blue and I lost a lot of fish as a result. Fish that I had for over 10 years perished as a result. Prior to that, I avoided hippo's for the very same reason.

 

[ReeFreak1]

First off, do not pop the bubble!

I have an Atllantic Tang that developed a similar issue. With good feeding and a bit of time, it should go away on it's own. In my tangs case, it got a case of pop eye after what I think was contact with my Fox Face. The pop eye went away on it's own and shortly after a bubble appeared in one of its eyes. After a couple weeks, the bubble disappeared.

Another cause of the appearene of bubbles in the eye is known as Gas Bubble Disease. While it's not what I consider a disease, it's reffered to it as such. It's typically caused by super saturation of oxygen or nitrogen in the water which then result in super saturated levels of oxygen or nitrogen in the fish. A rapid temp change or even salinity change can cause the O2 or No2 to expand resulting in the air bubbles in the eye and or under the skin. It's most likely that this was brought on by the fresh water dip but more likely as a result of your hyposality transition or both. Any changes to salinity should be done very very slowly over the course of several days if not more.

That said, it should go away on it's own and if this is the only symtom your fish has, just keep it well fed. While I didn't QT my tang, if you have a QT tank, it certainly wouldn't harm anything as long as the temp and salinity match so you don't stress it anymore. This condition isn't contagious so from that aspect you really have nothing to worry about.

Here is a bit more info on GBD as it pertained to a more severe case.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2014/8/fish

Wow. This is exactly it. You are amazing!

 

[slief]

Wow. This is exactly it. You are amazing!

Glad to help! :beer:

 

[ReeFreak1]

Powder blues are very sensitive to ich and a little bit of stress coupled with the presence of ich in your display could be all it takes to infect the PBT.. That could have a snowball effect on your other fish too. Sadly, that is the risk you take with hippo's and PBT's as well as certain other tangs that are more sensitive to ich.

That said, your 10 fish are not immune to ich. Just because they haven't broken out in it doesn't mean they are immune. A high level of stress and or a sudden change in water temps is all it will take for them to break out in it. Especially if you have a fish in the tank such as your hippo that is a known carrier. Just be aware. Been there done that. For me, I avoid Hippo's and powder blues like the plague. Hippos especially. The one and only ich outbreak I had was caused by a powder blue and I lost a lot of fish as a result. Fish that I had for over 10 years perished as a result. Prior to that, I avoided hippo's for the very same reason.

Good info Slief. You must be an expert!