BB,
Sorry to hear your fish died. For future reference, one overlooked, and very common cause of exopthalmia is mechanical damage during transfers. I don't mean rubbing of the fish's eyes against the net, I mean from vigorous shaking of the fish's head. Bilateral cases are rarer from this cause, but not unknown. You know the time when you snag the fish in the net and pull it out of the water and it vibrates rapidly in the net? That is when this occurs. Actual bubbles are sometimes produced around the fish's eye.
Another common cause is of course gas supersaturation. I've never heard of fungal diseases causing exopthalmia, but some bacteria are gas producers, and therefore can cause the problem.
I suppose that there can also be fluid-related causes of exopthalmia, but I don't have any experience with those. Besides, if it reaches a point where a fish's osmoregulatory system is that screwed up, the prognosis isn't likely to be very good.
The final problem is that regardless of the cause, if it is gas-related exopthalmia, and the bubbles are above a certain size, the condition is not likely to resolve even if you solve the original problem. I have been experimenting with a pressure chamber that reduces the bubble size, and allows the gas to reabsorb back into the fish's blood. Its a bit complicated to describe here. There are pictures of it in my book, Advanced Marine Aquarium techniques, out this month from TFH.
Jay Hemdal
