Swollen eyeball???

[chef]

I have a yellowtail damsel that one eyeball is about 3 times bigger than the other. No signs of damage and no discoloration. There is no cloudiness in the eye, and the fish is active and eating good. I know it is a cheap fish, but I have a lot more fish I don't want infected. Anyone ever see anything like this??? I am not one for tossing a living fish, and I have not yet set up a quarantine tank. ( to many other add ons in the making) Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks to all!!

 

[balogh03]

Sounds like popeye to me. Dont know how you treat it, so good luck

-augustus

 

[chef]

been searching on popeye, and that sounds like it. looks like an air bubble behind the eye now I looked a little closer. From what I found, usually passes. Thanks for the help!! I appreciate it !!

 

[steve-s]

True popeye would not leave the eye clear and generally affects both eye eventually. Either this is a minor injury, water quality issue or gas bubble trapped behind the cornea. In any event, it is usually easily healed. Be sure you do a few good sized water changes with well aged/aerated SW. 20-25% every other day for a week should do nicely. Reducing the nutrient in the system is the key to quickly nipping this in the butt before it becomes a problem.

What are your current water parameters, what tank mates, was this fish recently added/netted and do you have air bubbles in the tank?

 

[Poseidons Harem]

I had the same problem with one of my fish after a water change. What you might want to do is check your salt levels and temp. Then keep the lights off for about three days or so. This is what I did since medications is not an option in a reef tank being to large for me to catch the fish. At least that's what worked for me. Good luck.
Wow! This will be my second post I do more reading on here I guess

 

[morgan]

poseidon i went to a primary school named after u then a high school named ocean reef lol i dont know about 3 days with no light i can understand how sum corals could be expossed for 3 days with no light but i wouldnt recommend more then a day

i had a falco hawk fish that developed this i had read that pop eye was not contageous so i didnt stress to much about it i was worried for this fishs health but he was ok besides one eye being huge he's a little battler and was fine after a couple days and never had a problem since

 

[chef]

no lights is definately not an option. To many corals, (did I really say that) did a 10 percent water change about 5 days before I noticed this. As for fellow tank inhabitants, there are :
2 more yellow tail damsels
1 foxface
1 3 stripe damsel
1 domino damsel ( the jerk of the tank, but he hosted on my haddoni carpet so I just have not had the heart to get rid of him)
1 sailfin tang
1 coral beauty
1 naso tang
1 lawnmower blenny
1 copper banded butterfly
1 banner fish
13 types of zoo's
red, green, and purple mushrooms
4 colors of toadstools ( pretty small still)
3 peppermint shrimp (can't yet catch em' to take them out)
1 coral banded (blue)
few other corals and my 2 anenomes.
ammonia - 0 nitrite - 0 nitrate - 5 temp - 75 . I use R.O.D.I. for top odd and water changes, specific gravity is 1.024.
Also lost my clown 2 weeks ago:?: And I still have an algae problem occasionally. Oh yeah its a 250 gallon with a 50 gallon sump. set up for a year. Coralife 1270 and 2 Rio 1700's for circulation. Compact florecents for lighting. Sorry to be so long winded. Thanks !!

 

[steve-s]

Long winded always helps, no worries.

Aggression from the damsels or just plain running into something could have caused it. The water change would not cause this in anyway, quite the opposite. As I said though, water changes are part of the solution. The usual water change you do is not what I am speaking of either. You need to do more than that so you reduce the DOC on the water that could feed opportunistic bacteria. It could very well heal on it's own but taking this extyra precaution would go along way to helping it heal faster.

Why do you keep the temp so low?

 

[chef]

I'll do another water change for sure. Swelling has gone down some, but it's still huge. I was always told 75 to 78 for temp????? Should I bump this higher??

 

[steve-s]

75° is a bit low for my liking. 78-80° would be great. If your getting that 3° increase throughout the day, just increase the heater setting a tad. Stability in your temp is important. No need to go above 80° either, there is absolutely no advantage to it.