Purple dottyback has a huge swollen eye

[reefguy24]

//edit

I mistakenly called my fish a dottyback. It's actually this fish here:

My purple psuedochromis hasn't been eating for the past two days.

He's been hiding in a cave.

I just saw him come out and his right eye is SWOLLEN. There appears to be a white ring around it.


What could this be?

 

[reefguy24]

I should also mention that I change 25% water religiously every week, I only have 1 purple dotty back and two clowns in a 24ga nano tank. Usual cleanup crew.

I do, however, have 10 SMALL frags scattered about. Frogspawn, torches, zoas, flowerpots, mushrooms, etc. These all seem to be doing very well....the zoas are growing like weeds.

Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: ~10ppm
Amonia: 0ppm
PH: 8.0

I also dose every few days with a "reef solution for nano tanks". It adds calcium/etc and allegedly balances out ph.

I also feed the green algae in a bottle (kept in fridge) in order to keep a small population of copepods alive....and I think my coral frags seem to like it because they started to really "pop" once I started dosing with the food a week ago.

Also the purple dottyback with the huge eye.....he tends to squeeze himself into very tight crevaces in the live rock. He's always squeezing through rock crevaces whenever he swims. I think that's "his thing he does".

The only other potential negative creature in my tank.....is the emerald crab. They are kinda small, but they're *******s. Maybe the dottyback got too close and he got pinched?
thanks

 

[Newsmyrna80]

How long have you ad it? It could have just bumped into some live rock. My Royal Gramma always had scrapes from fitting into tight crevices.

 

[reefguy24]

How long have you ad it? It could have just bumped into some live rock. My Royal Gramma always had scrapes from fitting into tight crevices.

I have had it for about a month now. He has always eaten like a race horse and is very active and social with his clownfish friends.

He does however slip into really tight cracks....he loves to slip through rock cracks. I initially thought he had Ich a couple of weeks ago....turns out the white spots on his tail/etc were abrasions from him slipping by the live rock.

I can understand how he might get scraped....but does that account for him hiding in a cave and not eating?

I did some online research....could this be "pop eye"? If so,....would anti biotics used to treat it be harmful to my coral frags?

 

[Rea17]

You don't want to dose antibiotics to your display tank.

If the fish has popeye on one eye, it was likely caused by an injury rather than bacterial infection (though it could get infected at this point). You can move the fish to a hospital tank and give him antibiotics, wait it out, or dose 1tsp of Epsom salt per 5g of tank water to reduce the swelling. If the fluid behind the eye reaches critical mass, it can "pop" and the fish can lose the eye, die, or both. I would only act if the infection looks really bad, otherwise keep water quality pristine and feed healthy foods soaked in selcon and vitachem or Zoe.

 

[Mrscribbled]

Espom salt is safe to use in the DT if the fish is not easily caught. If cloudyness or the other eye bulges out, then antibiotics should be used.

 

[reefguy24]

Oh boy...

I have not set up a QT tank because this is just a dinky 24ga nano.

All the fish/corals were carefully selected so everyone would play nice.

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that a fish could injure himself on rocks.

Ok so I can't look at my tank without feeling bad for this guy....he was a really happy and hungry fish up until now.

So ****.....do I give him to the fish store because they're better equipped to take care of him? Or will they be heartless bastards and flush him? I don't have a QT tank set up.

I can do Epsom salts, provided that they won't harm my corals.

I'm not some sort of "save the whales" weirdo...I just don't want this little guy to die.


I'm going to try epsom tomorrow.


How would you guys suggest I feed him?

Also, the two clown fish are acting VERY strange as of today. Could something else be at play here? My clownfish are normally like puppy dogs when I'm around...coming up to the front of the tank to greet me. Today they were scared of me and I could barely get them to come to the front. I have two jungle cats.....but they have no access to my tank as the lid is closed and sealed completely.

I also had a pipefish die last week. Just throwing this out there.....but is there a chance I could have an octopus hitchhiker? The pipefish had 3 bottles of tigger copepods to eat from.

Literally, I monitor this tanks parameters like a HAWK. Nothing gets by me.

They are acting extremely skittish. My corals are doing just fine.....so I don't think it's the tank parameters.

I recently set up a refugium in the back chamber with some chaeto, but I doubt it could be that. I also am using a "sack" of stuff given to me by the fish store to help control high nitrates (tank was 20ppm a few days ago).



//edit

I just shone an LED flashlight (very powerful) into the fishtank....I saw like 3-4 copepods per "postage stamp" of space on my live rock. So "lack of food" could not have killed my pipefish. He was doing great for about 4-5 days....then the next day he was headless. All I was able to fish out was the body.


Call me crazy....but could an octopus do this to a purple psuedochromis fish's eye?

 

[Mrscribbled]

You have an octopus in your tank?

 

[reefguy24]

Not to my immediate knowledge.....but it's the only logical explanation for several events that have occurred.

My water parameters are impeccable. I monitor the tank every few hours.

 

[Roshan8768]

Highly doubtful that there's an octopus in your tank. Not sure what is causing the change in your fishes behaviour... clowns are usually a fairly poor indicator of issues though because they generally act strangely all the time. As long as our water quality is good, there's not much more you can do. A more likely hitchhiker would be a mantis shrimp

 

[CReyes350]

As for the fish with pop eye- he could have damaged his eye while darting around. I have a massive saddle back clownfish that had the same issue. His eye got huge and then a second bubble appeared on top of the first bubble... i thought about medication but i was certain the pop eye was a result of a possible injury and not my water parameters or undesired tankmates. I simply let the pop eye run its course without any medication and about a week and a half later the eye was back to normal. If I was in your situation and i was certain my water parameters are good and I didn't suspect illness- I would leave the fish alone while still monitoring it.

Good luck! :hmm5:

 

[Mrscribbled]

Fish will always suprise you, it could havr easily damaged it's eye.

 

[reefguy24]

Thanks everyone.

I went to the live fish store and bought some "natural remedy" (yeah, I know....the fish equivalent of a "naturalistic healer"....probably should have bought some "power crystals" and incense for the fishes Chi while I was at it).

So am hoping the "natural remedy" will help things along. It says to does every day (2 capfulls) for 5 days straight.

It has:

vitamins
anti oxidants
"nutrients"
and non pathogenic probiotic bacteria.


On second thought....I probably should have bought a dream catcher as well. Woulda worked just as good as this stuff. But who knows?

If this doesn't look any better by tomorrow, will get the epsom salts.

The fish is just hanging out in a cave right no.....he's coming out to look at me, but refuses to eat. That's my biggest concern is keeping him eating.

 

[reefguy24]

I just saw a good glimpse of the swollen eye today....it's completely cloudy.

Do you guys think it will clear up eventually?

 

[reefguy24]

Update:

Today was the first day the purple fish started to show signs of hunger. He ate 5 pellets I dropped in.

It appears as if the swelling has stopped.....but do you guys know if his eye will ever go back to normal again?

It looks pretty jacked up and I feel sorry for the little guy.

I hope he learns his lesson.....

 

[Mrscribbled]

If the eye is cloudy then it's now a bacterial infection. Furan-2 treatment in a hospital tank.