Supersaturation/pop-eye (???)

[ellee1]

Ok guys... you helped me diagnose & treat my fish's bacterial disease which is getting WAY better (I treated w/Macryn & Macryn Two) salt, and Melafix, he is soooooooooooooo getting better. However, everyone warned me about how much I needed to increase my aeration in the water, etc. b/c antibiotics make u lose oxygen or something in the water (???) So what did I do along w/airstones (tons of em)- I got a powerhead. Well, I guess it's too much "gas" in the water, causing supersaturation of nitrogen (gas bubble disease).

I read this in an article:

High-powered powerheads, that shoot streams of air into your tank’s water, can lead to nitrogen supersaturation. Treatment in this circumstance would be to turn down the powerhead water stream adjustment to its’ lowest setting and allow the air pump to be the only source of air. For the next few days, observe your fish. If the pop-eye starts to go away, then it was due to nitrogen supersaturation. If there is no change or the condition worsens, then the pop-eye is most likely due to an infectious cause and probably a bacterial one.

This is exactly what I am seeing:

You may see a large ring of white “skin” around the base of the eye. This tough tissue, that helps to hold the eye in its’ socket, is being stretched as the eye bulges. Your fish may show other symptoms such as being less active and not eating well. (except Max is totally eating well and back to his old self.)

So should I just stop the power head and is like 2 powerful air pumps enough for a 30-gallon hosp. tank? (I want to make sure I have enough "aeration" or whatever!) I don't know it's very confusing! I guess I over did it on the aeration (with the powerhead!) Uhhhhhhhhh! Is that what you guys think? B/C he did not have this "pop-eye" before!

 

[Jo]

Hey..It would be my guess (and it is only a guess) that it is likely to be a bacterial form of pop-eye. From what I understand it is quite rare for pop eye to become apparent from too much oxygen in the water.

I recently had a fish with pop eye. The eye went cloudy and looked as if it had a jelly cap on it.

From what i understand, pop eye (the bacterial kind) is likely to attack stresssed fish, or fish that have low immune systems due to another illness, am I understanding it right that the fish with pop eye is the one that you have been treating for something else?

What are your water perameters like, bad conditions could also stress the poor fishy out..!

AS for treatment, I'm not sure, as I dind't get that far with my fish before he died, but I understand that there are treatments that you can get for pop-eye, but someone else will have to advise how useful they are...

sorry, if this isn't very helpful!

Good luck and let us know how he goes!

 

[ellee1]

Hey..It would be my guess (and it is only a guess) that it is likely to be a bacterial form of pop-eye. From what I understand it is quite rare for pop eye to become apparent from too much oxygen in the water.

I recently had a fish with pop eye. The eye went cloudy and looked as if it had a jelly cap on it.

From what i understand, pop eye (the bacterial kind) is likely to attack stresssed fish, or fish that have low immune systems due to another illness, am I understanding it right that the fish with pop eye is the one that you have been treating for something else?

What are your water perameters like, bad conditions could also stress the poor fishy out..!

AS for treatment, I'm not sure, as I dind't get that far with my fish before he died, but I understand that there are treatments that you can get for pop-eye, but someone else will have to advise how useful they are...

sorry, if this isn't very helpful!

Good luck and let us know how he goes!

Well, the reason I think it is from the powerhead is b/c there was no sign of Pop-eye before I put the powerhead in on Saturday night. And, in that article I read, it says nothing about there being a white film over the eye (that's when it's bacterial or viral I guess), and Max doesn't have that. He just has a stretched out socket. And that's the symptom of gas being trapped behind it, I guess. And, the article said that airstones don't produce small enough bubbles to get under the skin, and powerheads do and cause the bubbles to get under the skin and the capillaries & all that.

 

[BettaBoyz]

if i'm not mistaken, Pop-Eye is caused by a bruise. if one fish attacks another and manages to scrape it's eye up, it's susceptible to the disease. Gas Bubble Disease is different, because it's caused by there being too much oxygen in the water, which means the fish absorbs too much oxygen and has to get rid of it, but since fish can't very well burp or fart the oxygen can't escape quickly enough, resulting in the bubbles on their skin.

as for the Pop-Eye, get some meds, and find anything that might have beaten up his eye. if it looks like it could have poked him, or if he was beaten up before he was moved into the hospital tank, remove the culprit.