Help!

[Liz05]

I woke up this morning, went in to feed her, and her eye looks absolutely awful. It looks like there is a bubble under it, and it looks sort of reddish around the edges.. its all sticking out. The only thing I can think of would be dropsy - but her scales and the rest of her body look fine, she's eating and swimming normally. What can I do for her?

 

[Angel Lady]

first of all sounds to me like popeye you will need some triple sulfa or something simular to that do you have salt in the tank with you molly you will need to put her in a hospital tank and add some salt and medicine.

 

[gadazobe]

It does sound like popeye - but before you medicate - change the water. As with most fish diseases, it's cause by BAD WATER CONDITIONS. It's no good curing the symtoms without righting the cause. Get your water right and the popeye should disappear after a few days without medication.

 

[Liz05]

Ok, popeye... No, there is no salt in my tank because I have snails. I can remove her and place her in a temporary tank, but I'd have to go buy another, and that wouldn't be convenient.... Also I don't understand how my water conditions could be bad. My ammonia is a perfect 0, I don't test nitrates or nitrites but the tank has been up and running for over a year with no problems. The gravel was vaccumed only two days ago and a 30% water change was done. Theres not a spot of dirt to be seen. Other than that, what could be wrong with my water? Gadazobe, if I just leave her alone, will she be OK? I would like her to heal naturally if that's possible. Will my other fish want to bother her?

 

[gadazobe]

Possibly you cleaned too well and caused a mini nitrite spike. Check the nitrite and nitrate. Prolonged exposure to nitrate will weaken your fish and make it suspectable to diseases. Do a small water change daily, don't clean, just change the water. She should show some improvement in a day or so/

 

[bigfish]

You can add some Melafix to the water, as it is a natural medicine. Sounds nasty!!!! any chance that your molly damaged her eye on the decoration in the tank at all?

 

[Liz05]

My decoration consists of plastic plants, and a large plastic rock with a cave. If there is something on which she might have hurt herself, I am not aware of it. I do have melafix, I will add some of that. How much of a water change should I be doing? 10%? 20? I'll keep you posted.

 

[bigfish]

Depends How big your tank is and how much you feed them.

 

[Liz05]

My tank is a 10 gallon and I feed them twice a day. Last night, I put a dose of MelaFix in the water. This morning, it still looks the same only a little less red. So maybe it's helping. I did some reading last night on the subject, and I'm wondering if it was some kind of eye trauma. Do I need to do a water change daily because of the medicine? It says to add another dose every day for seven days. Or can I just add the medicine and not do a water change.

 

[Alien Anna]

My tank is a 10 gallon and I feed them twice a day. Last night, I put a dose of MelaFix in the water. This morning, it still looks the same only a little less red. So maybe it's helping. I did some reading last night on the subject, and I'm wondering if it was some kind of eye trauma. Do I need to do a water change daily because of the medicine? It says to add another dose every day for seven days. Or can I just add the medicine and not do a water change.

Melafix is denatured by the warmth of the aquarium, hence the dosage has to be repeated daily. Do your daily w/c's, because that's very important at the moment, and immediately afterwards add another dose of Melafix. Pop-eye can be caused by poor water quality, so the w/c is more important than the Melafix.

 

[Liz05]

Ok, so how much water should i change? 10%? 20%? I don't want to cause another nitrite spike

 

[Alien Anna]

Ok, so how much water should i change? 10%? 20%? I don't want to cause another nitrite spike

Stick to 10%. Don't clean your gravel every time because that is more likely the cause - very little of the beneficial bacteria is in the water. Most is in the filter and gravel.

Another possibility is that you had your filter turned off for too long when you were cleaning the tank out, and some of the bacteria in it died off.

Personally, when I've cycled a tank I've done 50% w/c daily without any adverse effects, so I'm not so sure water changes cause nitrite spikes. YMMV.

 

[Liz05]

I dont clean my gravel often, just when it starts to look very nasty. The filter thing is probably very correct... the other day, my filter started to spew gross things into my tank... i hadnt realized that the cartridge was too full! So I had to take it out and rinse it. The nitrite spike thing was gadazobe's idea, due to me cleaning a little [/I]too well.