Popeye

[Muppet]

Following a house move my tomato clown has gotten a little fiesty and has taken several chuncks out of my dwarf angel. this morning i noticed that the D.A's eye is puffed out and clouded over. I know this could have been brought on by stress leading to a bacterial infection or a physical wound possibly from the clownfish (i have ruled out water quality as an issue following testing). I think it may be a condition known as 'Popeye'. Does anyone know how to treat this condition and is it infectious?

 

[Chasing Puck]

It's caused by a bacterial infection--in your case, most likely the stress from the move and the aggressive clown suppressed the angels immune system to the point where the bacteria could take off. Best advice--reduce the stresses. This may mean removing the fish to quarantine and allowing it to heal without further abuse. Then, re-arrange the tank and re-introduce the angel. Or--if there aren't other fish that could harras the angel, remove the clown and put it in solitary confinement until the angel is healthy again. This method allows the angel to heal, and gives it time to claim territory, and the clown will have to fight for it's own on re-introduction.

I hate moving tanks--seems like the happy hierarchy always gets distrubed every time I've had to remove all the fish for whatever reason.

 

[Muppet]

I moved the clown into my q'tine tank and left the angel in the main tank. After a couple of days the fins and scars were healing well. The popeye condition appered to be getting worse - it was no longer unilateral and the other eye was showing a cloudiness. I used a methylene blue dip to treat the angel. unfortunately this did not work and even though i thought it was improving it obviously wasn't as it died about a week later.

You're right about moving though, its just a good job it doesn't have to be done very often.