Popeye in Cream Angel

[Keith F]

I recently (3 weeks ago) introduced a cream angel into my reef tank -however it soon started nibbling at everything . Took me ages to fish it out and place in quarantine (3 days ago), since then it has developed popeye ( one eye only) close observation shows what appears to be a gas bubble beneath the tissue. It feeds ok and looks healthy enough with no other apparent visible symptoms.
Info gleaned indicate poor water parameters (NO3 is approx 40ppm in quarantine tank compared to 10ppm in reef tank so did a precautionary 25% water change last night) or possible fish TB to be cause - Anybody else have any experience of this??

 

[NaH2O]

Keith - Welcome to Reef Frontiers!!!

I'll move this thread into Terry B's fish discussion forum for him to have a look.

 

[wrightme43]

normaly when a fish is netted and then moved and it gets pop eye it is a bacterial infection from eyeball abrasion, sorta like a if you held your eye open and rubbed it on sandpaper. Fish will bump their eyes into rocks or get it rubbed hard against the net. Usually with good water quality and if its still eating it will heal up on its own. Terry will probley have better advice on how to heal it up. I just wanted to say its probley not fish tb. Steve

 

[Terry B]

Steve is right, typically fish get popeye after being injured with a net. Please do not catch your fish in nets! If the eye gets cloudy then it probably has become infected with bacteria from the injury. Maracyn-Two used at DOUBLE strength each day for 7 days is a good choice of antibiotic for eye infections. It may help the healing process to reduce the salinity in the treatment tank. If you can find some Beta glucan at a good health food store then a tiny bit with the food each day will enhance immune function.
The first step is to make a large water change using well aged and aerated saltwater. If the eye is not cloudy then it may heal without medication.
You may find this article on my Website helpful:
http://www.marineaquariumadvice.com/no_nets_please.html

Terry B

 

[Maxx]

Terry,
Whats the reccomended way to catch fish then?
Keith,
Its ugly to look at and upsetting to see, but generally, Pop eye heals with no long term affect on the fishes health. I would agree that you need to do regular water changes of at least 25% to get the NO3 levels down to prevent the fish from getting a worse disease.

Nick

 

[NaH2O]

Nick - here is an article Terry did, which I found very informative.

No Nets Please! Better Health through Better Handling

Also, I conducted a poll on the topic, as I was curious to what the majority of people do.

Netting fish