Pop eye

[Annakim28]

Hi all. My tank has been up and running for over a year but to be fair it was a bit neglected until recently. I had a baby and it took a while till I felt up to tank maintenance. Luckily nothing bad happened except my hob fuge filled up with green hair algae and the rocks got covered in something white and fluffy that came off easily. For the past 6 weeks I've been keeping up with water changes and all my parameters have been great and consistent. I have barely measurable nitrates and phosphate is 0.1. I added a Talbot's damsel 2 days ago and today I noticed that it was hiding. When it finally did come out I noticed one eye is very swollen. The fish looked great yesterday and ate for me. I am hesitant to do much of anything because I don't want to mess anything up. Is this something that will heal with time? Apart from keep the water super clean what should I do? The only other fish is a linear blenny who has defended her hidey whole and personal space but I have seen no chasing or aggression.

[seabass]

Pop eye is often caused by poor water quality, or physical damage/abrasion to the eye which can result in a bacterial infection.  In either case, you would treat the fish for the bacterial infection (in a hospital tank with antibiotics).  There is a possibility that, given pristine water quality, the fish might recover on its own; but it might also lose sight in that eye or the infection could potentially spread to the other eye.

 

 

[xM3THODx]

Earlier this year my blue damsel got Popeye in one eye then spread into the other. The first infected eye went down, the other followed and it's back to normal since. It lasted over a period of a week and a half and sure it was still feeding during. I felt bad about letting it go through what it did but I sure wasn't gonna tear down the reef to catch it.

 

Catch and treat if you can. 

 

 

[Annakim28]

Well...he died 😟. I have no idea how he went downhill so fast. The first day and a half I had him he was a beautiful addition to the tank. He was active and eating and then he was hiding and 24 hours later he was dead. I found his body very early this morning; had a fight with my thin lined hermit to get the body out. All other inhabitants seem very happy (as happy as recovering coral frags can look). I will definitely be trying another Talbot's damsel but I'm gonna give it a few weeks. 

[mcarroll]

I went through a similar period of neglect on my system so I know exactly what you're dealing with. (Same reason to.)

 

It seems likely, but it still worth asking: during all of that time of neglect were there any big swings in salinity, alkalinity or anything else?

 

Did you happen to get pictures of the tank before you refurbished it and got rid of the weird stuff that was growing? It could be a lot of things without seeing it, but one thing that your description fits with is a massive bacterial mat.

 

It's not exactly a diagnosis but this also jives with your fish coming down with pop eye.   most of my fish experience comes from retail, and they're the most common time to find Popeye is on fish that come out of really filthy bag water.

 

We would do nothing to treat these fish except put them into our system with good water. Usually within the span of a week or so, sometimes less, they would be back to normal.

 

The situation leaves me with some serious doubts about your tank's water. I think I would consider running some activated carbon and perhaps even consider a UV sterilizer for the next time you add fish for some extra insurance.

 

Part of the issue now is probably that the tank was still so young when it started getting neglected – in reality it was really just starting to pick up steam.

 

I think if I were in your shoes I would pretend my tank was only six months old again and start from that mindset.

 

What is the current livestock list in this tank?