PopEye - Popped!

[Netherways]

Hi!

Some of you may have seen yesterday that my Dwarf Gourami what appeared to be popeye, I woke up this morning to see that the white blister over the eye has now popped and the eye appeared to be bleeding. The Eye underneath looked ok but very red and recessed back a little. The remenants of the bubble/blister around the eye were hanging off and had blood on them and the other fish were viciously trying to eat this stuff.

I battled for 45 minutes trying to catch the fish to put him in a tank on his own to stop the fish attacking him but I had no choice but to leave and go to work at that point due to a very important meeting that I could in no circumstances be late for.

Does Popeye pop? I wasnt aware that it should create a mess and what do I do now?! The whole thing only started at about 4pm yesterday and now Im fully expecting to go home to a dead fish after being attacked by the others all day thinking his mess of what was an eye is food!

If the poor guy is still alive should I take him out and see if a tank on his own would help things at all....thats the other problem, none of my other free tanks have pumps or heating facilities, would that kill him too?

I also have reservations about taking him away from the other gourami in the tank, Those two are practically joined at the fin and when they were seperated last time for transportation both of them showed great signs of destress untill they were together again.

I get home in about 2 hours and would like some advice as to what to do/expect.

You thoughts are greatly valued.

Alex

 

[The-Wolf]

I have never heard of an eye popping before, I really don't know what to suggest other than treating for normal popeye and hoping for the best.
I have a danio with only one eye and I know that there are other members here with one eyed fish, chances are if he didn't die when it popped then he may survive yet.
Good luck.

 

[clutterydrawer]

Sounds like it would be a good idea to isolate him, especially if the other fish are eating the..uhh...stuff.

What I did once when I had to isolate a fish and didnt have a hospital tank is I got one of those clear plastic bozes that strawberrys come in, and put it in the tank, wedged between the internal filter and the wall. this way the fish was kep out of the way of other fish but was warm and had filtered water (the boxes have holes in).

good luck.

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Oh gosh! Just got back in from work myself. Sorry to hear that its now happened. I was really hoping it'd be better after your response in the previous thread. If your heating is still up, I think it'd be a good idea to keep it up a little longer. This way, if its bacterial, then a possible re-infection of any other fishes may be reduced. Good luck.

 

[wetwetwet]

Sorry to hear that mate

As you say it may cause more stress to move him - especially if you don't have suitable tank to isolate....

I've had the same problem with a rainbow. Keep impecable water quality in the tank. I think the eye will be lost. Watch for any further infections to the damaged eye and treat as necessary....

On the plus side mine made a full recovery (less the eye) and seems none the worst for having to live with with just the one eye...

Good luck with it and let us know how it gets on.




www

 

[Netherways]

Guys,

Just an update. Im afraid when I got home that the fish's head area had started to turn black and it looked like he was decomposing in the water as he was still, barely, alive.

I had to put the fish down in the most humane way available to me, This was sugested on a thread here and also by a vet friend, by placing the fish in a container with tank water and dropping in a few alka seltzer tablets. The fish gave a 2 second squirm - which was horrible to see- and then lay still.

I had bought a test kit and other essential stuff i should have had before on the way home and the only abnormal presence in the water was a slight increase in ammonia from Sunday when it was last checked at the LFS. I will put that increase down to the...erm..decomposing of the fish while it was alive

I have put Ammo lock in the tank and all other fish are behaving normally. 25% water changes will be done every night for the next few days just to keep on top of things.

Thank you for all your support but It just appears this fish had something bad going for it!

Anyone had this before at all? It was pretty weird circumstances. When I got home tonight the things head was just...well...green/black like a rotten peice of meat. Must have been some kind of fungus!

Alex

R.I.P 1 X Dwarf Gourami