Several anthias with pop eye

[davesolo29]

I have 8 bi colour anthias in my 200 gallon tank.
They have been beautiful and healthy for a month. Over the last few days they have been developing pop eye. Two have it in both eyes and two have it in one eye each.
What might be the root cause of this. At first I thought aggression or bumping into a rock. But since it seems to be spreading I believe it may be something more.

Tank mates are a yellow tang, purple tang, sailfin tang, potters wrasse, two clownfish, bi colour blenny and the 8 bi colours.
Testing is pretty limited due to my colourblindness and hassle getting wife to check for me.

ph 8.3
No3 5-10
Cal 472
Alk 128
Po4 0.13

 

[HumbleFish]

As you said, since it seems to be spreading, it's probably something disease related. Harmful bacterium in the water column causing infection would be my best guess. Most of the time, a fish's natural immune system can keep these harmful bacterium in check, so you'll never even know it's there. I soak fish food in vitamin supplements, and keep my aquarium water quality pristine to help enable my fishes natural immune system. But it sounds as though your fish may require more aggressive antibiotic treatment. No antibiotics are really "reef safe", so unless this is a FO they should be administered in a QT.

The other possibility is flukes, which can affect the eyes in advanced stages. But you should see other symptoms - namely, white stringy feces - if they all had flukes. A f/w dip on one of the afflicted could confirm or deny flukes. After 3 or 4 mins, you will see tiny white worms pour out of the gills (and eyes in your case) if the fish has flukes.

 

[davesolo29]

Several anthias with pop eye

I refilled my qt today and will put the fish in once its up to temp tomorrow.
Will try a freshwater dip prior to transfer.

 

[HumbleFish]

I refilled my qt today and will put the fish in once its up to temp tomorrow.
Will try a freshwater dip prior to transfer.

If it does turn out to be flukes, you can treat with Prazipro in your DT. It is the only "reef safe" med I know of, save tube worms/feather dusters.

 

[davesolo29]

I hate trying to diagnose stuff. I always assume the worst when looking.
I have a bad feeling it may be brooklynella.
Prior to this eye problem I was contemplating hypo in my qt to eradicate what I assumed was ich. Now combined with this I'm not so sure.

 

[HumbleFish]

I hate trying to diagnose stuff. I always assume the worst when looking.
I have a bad feeling it may be brooklynella.
Prior to this eye problem I was contemplating hypo in my qt to eradicate what I assumed was ich. Now combined with this I'm not so sure.

Brook is a fast killer which mostly affects clownfish (for some reason). If what you saw looked like "white sprinkles" on the skin and those have now gone away, then most likely it was Ich. Symptoms of Brook (and Velvet) don't just go away; the fish usually dies.

If the anthias have Ich, then that would also explain the popeye as a secondary bacterial infection. All fish in your tank need to be QT, treated for Ich and bacterial infection.

 

[davesolo29]

Best way to go about this? Do a bath or just treat the qt tank?
Hypo?
These are the meds i currently have in my fishroom..
prazi pro
ich-x (has formaldehyde <3%)
cupramine
melafix

My qt is a standard 75 gallon tank. i didnt want to use a tank that is too small for the obvious reason of the fish being in there for 10 weeks.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

[HumbleFish]

Treat w/Cupramine in QT for 4 weeks and then observe. Let the DT sit fallow for 72 days. The QT should have no rock or substrate, to avoid copper absorption.

You'll also probably need to treat with antibiotics as well. Something like Furan-2 or Erythromycin should do the trick, and can be safely mixed with Cupramine.

I think in a pinch your 75 gal QT may work, but you are looking at lots of WCs to control ammonia. Obviously having another QT in this situation would be better. Do you have any seeded biomedia available to use? What do you use for filtration in QT?

Pick up one of these to help monitor the ammonia. DO NOT use any ammonia reducers such as Amquel or Prime while treating with copper.

 

[davesolo29]

So.. i kind of came to my own conclusion by reading a bit more..
Since i have already dosed the qt with prime to try to avoid ammonia, i shouldnt add any other meds to the qt.
so i will be doing a bath with the ich-x and starting hypo in my qt.

If i am wrong, please give me a heads up.

 

[davesolo29]

i was looking for an ammonia badge today at one of our lfs. they dont carry them.

 

[davesolo29]

for filtration in my qt i have a HOB filter with filter floss in it as well as a couple of airstones for oxygenization.

 

[HumbleFish]

So.. i kind of came to my own conclusion by reading a bit more..
Since i have already dosed the qt with prime to try to avoid ammonia, i shouldnt add any other meds to the qt.
so i will be doing a bath with the ich-x and starting hypo in my qt.

If i am wrong, please give me a heads up.

You mainly want to avoid mixing copper & Prime, but IMO it's probably not a good idea to mix any meds with an ammonia reducer. Better safe than sorry, right?

Sorry to be harsh, but Ich-X is worthless for treating Marine Ich (ironic, isn't it?). The only thing useful it contains is formaldehyde, and that is only good for treating Brook and temp relief of Velvet.

Opinions vary on hyposalinity. I just feel it's too difficult to execute properly, and hypo resistant strains of Ich have been proven to exist.

 

[HumbleFish]

for filtration in my qt i have a HOB filter with filter floss in it as well as a couple of airstones for oxygenization.

If it utilizes something which bacteria can colonize; for example, Aquaclear powerfilters come with these porous foam/sponge "media" inserts. You can buy one of those "bacteria in a bottle" products, like Bio-Spira, to "seed" the media and that will provide you with biological filtration in QT. Would really help with the ammonia.

I haven't ever personally used a "bacteria in a bottle" product; I just seed my media down in the sump for one month. But many trusted members here use the "bacteria in a bottle" approach to control ammonia in QT.

 

[davesolo29]

So. Finally caught them all. They all had about a 20 minute bath in the ich x. Now they are in qt. Salinity is at 1.014 ATM. I will have it down to 1.009 tomorrow night. I'm afraid to drop it on them all at once.
The next 10 weeks will give me plenty of time to get my rock scape perfect.

 

[davesolo29]

Can I treat with prazi pro while in hypo?

 

[davesolo29]

Wow, 15 days later. I can't believe nobody answered that.

 

[Grizlbits]

Yes, you can treat w/Prazi while in hypo. Your skimmer will go hyper active, so keep an eye on it. Also turn off any UV. If you can't run the skimmer run some air stones for o2. You will need to treat w/ Prazi twice, the second time about a week after the first in case there are eggs that recently hatched. Prazi treatment lasts about 3 days according to most on this site.

 

[Deinonych]

Yes, you can treat w/Prazi while in hypo. Your skimmer will go hyper active, so keep an eye on it. Also turn off any UV. If you can't run the skimmer run some air stones for o2. You will need to treat w/ Prazi twice, the second time about a week after the first in case there are eggs that recently hatched. Prazi treatment lasts about 3 days according to most on this site.

You should not run the skimmer while dosing Prazi.

 

[davesolo29]

I have no skimmer on my qt.

 

[Boga]

Skimming does not work in hyposalinity, unless the skimmer is about 8 feet tall.