Purple Tang Pop-Eye

[lazluvtoo]

My big, beautiful purple tang developed a bad pop-eye infection of one of his eyes about three weeks ago. I performed a 10% water change 10 days ago with no improvement noted in his disease. Yesterday, I performed another 10% and today another 10%.

Is there anything else I can do for my poor grossly disfigured fish, or is he doomed with that bulging eye 4ever?

Thanks!
Cindy

 

[Vitaly]

Well I have only had one experience with pop-eye. It was last year when my sixline wrasee presented with a minor case, most likely resulting from an abrasion to the right eye.

I did a bit of reading and spoke to an LFS owner. The recommendation was to leave the fish alone for a few days, since it was eating and bahving normally, and just observe it to see if symptoms improved. In my case, after about a week the fish had fully recovered without intervention.

But considering that your fish has gone three weeks without improvement, perhaps some intervention is necessary.

It was recommended to me, that the next course of action would have been to move the fish to hyposalinity and treat with antibiotics; such as Mardel's Maracyn Plus (Sulfadimidine [aka. Sulfamethazine], Trimethoprin), or Triple Sulfa (Sulfadiazine, Sulfamethazine, Sulfamerazine).

If you do decide to medicate, I would also suggest that you continue the treatment for 2-3 days once the physcial symptoms have disappeared, just to sure that the tissue is free of any infectious agent. Then slowly increase the salinity of the quarantine tank and move the fish back to the display.

 

[kevin2000]

Pop eye is usually a sign of bacterial infection .. often will go away on its own. If not .. then Qt and use a double dose of Maracyn 2 .. should help. You don't need to use hypo as indicated in the prior post.

 

[Vitaly]

kevin2000...if you read the scientific literature you would appreciate that exophthalmia can be a symptom of many things beyond "bacterial infection", this includes:

* por diet (Vitamin A deficiency)
* physcial trauma/abrasion
* viral infection
* parasitic/trematode infection and sometimes just
* environmental effects just as super-saturation of gas (seen in fish hatcheries)
* idiopathic (hormonal imbalance)

Though it is clear that hyposalinity (~1.012) will have no effect on the bacteria...it certainly will if the infectious agent is parasitic. Further, as many hobbyists have learned, housing fish in a lower salinity environment reduces the physiologic burden on the animal; thereby allowing the reallocation of metabolic resources towards mobilizing an immune response and towards wound healing (analogous to bed rest for a human).

The best course of treatment is a broad spectrum approach. Therefore, my recommendation is to combine pharmacological therapy with hyposalinity.

 

[kevin2000]

Thanks the the information. I understand that bacteria is not the sole cause of popeye .. which is why I used "usually" in my response. As previously stated ... hypo will have no impact on popeye.

 

[Vitaly]

"hypo will have no impact on popeye."

Exophthalmia/Pop-eye is a symptom and not a disease. The purpose of the hyposalinity is not to treat the symptom, but rather is a treatment step for a candidate infectious agent (trematodes).

Further, is helps reduce physiological/osmotic stress in the fish...acting as a general aid towards recovery. When we get sick...we stay in bed, eat well and drink fluids.

Staying in bed, eating and drinking does not have any impact on the infectious agent (bacteria, virus, fungus) that is causing the illness. However, it does faciliate in the hosts ability to resolve the infection.

 

[lazluvtoo]

Thanks for the information! I am going to start by soaking the food in Selcon and keeping an eye on him. I'm thinking perhaps his symptoms are traumatic in nature since he is always darting about in and out of the rocks chasing (or being chased) by the yellow tangs!