My Clown has a swollen eye

[martlla26]

Last night I noticed my gold stripe maroon has a swollen/infected eye. It is protruding and sort of cloudy looking. I found this out and now I have to leave on a business trip where I'll be gone for 2 days. Is he going to be ok?? Not sure if this is a case of pop-eye, but the cloudiness got a little worse over night. The skin looks like it is partially covering the eye too. It looks like he may go blind. I had this guy since November, he was very tiny at first and has probably grown 1/4 in size but is still only about 3 inches. I don't know what happened, unless he scraped it on a rock. The other fish don't bully him.

While I'm away my family is going to take care of my tank, feeding some flake food. He's still eating, though a little more sluggish than usual. I hope he recovers

 

[clevengergl]

It sounds like a case of Popeye which, in many cases, is a direct result of an eye injury or irritation and may or may not heal on its own. If all other tank conditions are optimal and no other inhabitants are displaying signs of infection, the irritation is most likely injury-related.

With regard to your business trip, I highly doubt the condition will worsen noticeably within just a few days.

To be on the safe side, though, you may try to treat the clown with a dose of oral tetracycline (Mardel is a brand easily located at your LFS). The easiest way to do this is to melt a few chunks of frozen brine or mysis shrimp in some water and drop the pill in. It should dissolve fairly quickly, and then you can either re-freeze the solution for a solid feeding later on, or simply dose the medicated food in its liquid form. It's probably best to keep the fish on this medicated regimen for about a month, or until the swelling begins to abate.

Hopefully all will go well and he'll make a full recovery. Give the clown my best....

Gary

 

[SVXH6]

if this fish is in your reef do not use a medication in it.. it will kill everything(coral).. if you feel the need to treat the clown use a QT.. although if healthy it should heal up fine on its own..

 

[martlla26]

Yes it is in my reef. Update...Just got back tonight and the clown is doing OK, the eye hasn't gotten any worse.

 

[jallard]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6904238#post6904238 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SVXH6
if this fish is in your reef do not use a medication in it.. it will kill everything(coral).. if you feel the need to treat the clown use a QT.. although if healthy it should heal up fine on its own..

The medication you use to treat pop eye is an antibiotic and wont kill coral, however it will kill off your benificial bacteria.

I am currently treating my clown for the same thing (popeye) in a hospital tank......takes time.

 

[ClownReef®]

Do a waterchange..it will go away.