Optic gas bubble disease? NOT usual pop-eye..

[Crab Rangoon]

So I didn't think too much of it when one of my 5 cardinals was showing what looked like a minor eye injury. But the next day, the spot on his eye became an obvious glistening bubble, on the outer lens. This gas bubble continued slowly "floating" up across the lens over the next few days until it peaked at the top of the eye, and it clung there (picture freshwater plants "pearling" process) for a day or two.

Now the gas bubble has now traveled behind the eye, and wedged between the fishes body/head and the eye itself. The eye is still pretty much it's normal size, unlike in pop-eye, it's just pushed out from the head. In turn, the extra pressure on the fishes internals seems to take it's toll by making the fish flap its fins in a more labored fashion, but I can't tell if it's having more trouble keeping itself down, or up

I plan to do a freshwater dip on the fish this evening, as there are now TWO of them with this issue. I'm familiar with seeing this sort of thing happen to seahorses from time to time, but not to their eye.

Any experience / advise?

 

[JHemdal]

The FW dip will not serve any benefit, and since the mechanical damage of catching the fish up can actually cause this problem, it may make things worse. Time is the best courfse of action (unless it is a supersaturation even t)

Jay

 

[Crab Rangoon]

Well, the original contractor of the disease seemed to be on absolute last legs, so I went ahead and took a shot with the FW dip. I don't believe it made much of a difference in his time of demise, as he still hung around another day and a half after the dip, but didn't show any improvement. The other Cardinal exhibiting this wound up improved a slight bit the following day, and is looking marginally better yesterday too. The swelling is now less than before, but it's become evenly spread around the radius of the eye, rather than simply being large and only focused at the top.

This one shall remain in quarantine, and I won't be trying anything else for the duration of the illness - but he is not showing any of the labored swimming/breathing that the other one did, so I'm hoping it turns around for the best.

 

[JHemdal]

You might be interested in reading an article I wrote for Advanced Aquarist online magazine, in their March 2010 issue. It deals with fish eye diseases. You should be able to find it by searching Google for: fish eye disease Hemdal.

Jay