Hey guys I woke up this morning and my female clownfish had pop-eye. My water is great so I am not sure if I should consider quarantine or just wait it out. I have heard this can be caused by fungus, poor nutrition or a physical injury. I really do not want to quarantine because it will stress her out more and could further hurt her. Has any one else had this type of problem?
generally pop eye doesnt cure itself easily. it may be a scrape on the eye that clouded over or it could be pop eye. either way i would start with a water change and if it doesnt improve after 3-4 days i would consider treating. prazipro has been used in reef tanks in the past but high concentrations can kll inverts so i would be very cautious if you go that route.
Ben what size tank is she in and well it be easy to catch her? Do you have a QT tank up and running? In my opinion, I would put her in QT with the tank water she is in if the QT is not setup already so she doesn't have to endure a big change. and you well get some of the good bio bacteria with the water. If the Qt is not setup I would not feed while treating for the 7 days so as to keep the bio load as small sa possible. Like Jason says she could have just scratched her eye, or she has a bacterial infection starting. I would treat with Maracyn right away as per instructions and if you have the money treat with Maracyn2 at the same time, one is gram neg and one is gram pos., but for sure Maracyn, they both contain vit B and well help in appetite stimulation. These are really great broad spectrum products that do not stress your fish. Jason, as far as I know prazipro is more for worms and flukes, more along the lines of interceptor for heart worms, I don't believe it well have any effect on a bacterial infection, I could be wrong though, LOL. You need an anti biotic which kills bacteria. Shpuldn't be to bad to deal with Ben. Good luck
She is in a 75 gallon reef tank and will be quite hard to catch. If I do not see a change when I get home I will try to get a quarantine tank up and running. I just hate to stress her out and the male as well.
Ben reread my post I edited it. If you have someone you know with a QT up and running I would use it. To be honest with you I don't know how the Maracyn well effect a newly setup QT, I have always used it in a QT that had been setup. I would just put her in by herself and not feed for the seven days and monitor amon. and nitrites closely. Also how big is your QT tank, the bigger the volume of DT water you can put in the better the good bact. load you well get. Also if you have a piece or two of rock you don't like put it in the QT to help get good bacteria in, and don't take my word for it but I believe as long as you don't use copper you can put the rock back in your DT, but I would check into that. Also this is like when you are on anti biotics and needs to be treated for the full 7 days. cheers
a agree with the maracyn suggestions in a qt tank. the prazi pro was a suggestion to try if he wanted to treat in the tank which most suggest against anyway. i have seen general cure used in tanks and had no ill affects but thats just my experience. it contains both metro and praziquentenal(spelling?) and it is usually alot cheaper then teh maracyn for treating.
Can you catch her when she's sleeping? That's usually when I try to catch fish. I have a full QT setup if you need to borrow one. Just send me a private message. Antibiotics, especially gram negative, can wipe out the biofilter. I would suggest a sponge filter so that you can dump it if you go negative. 10G for 1 clownfish should be ok.
Here are some photos I just took of her. Do you think I should do water a water change and see if it gets better or should I proceed to quarantine with antibiotics.
Read the treatment section of the link: http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/compld ... 053001.htm I would try to Chemi-Clean. It will not hurt your tank, and I believe contains some anti-biotic like eurthramyacin. It recommends not to remove the fish unless it is being harassed by other fish. Another exert: any bacteria are naturally resistant to specific drugs, so using the proper type of antibiotic is of the utmost importance. For example, gram-positive bacteria are often unaffected by tetracycline and streptomycin, while gram-negative bacteria may be unaffected by ampicillin, penicillin, erythromycin and sulfa drugs. Some bacteria may also be unaffected by the usual dose, but are susceptible to a higher dose. Here is another good example. Mardel Laboratories makes Mayacin and Mayacin 2. Mayacin is erythromycin based and is a gram-positive bacteria treatment. Mayacin 2 is mincycline hydrochlor based and is a gram-negative bacteria treatment, as well as sufficiently absorbed through the skin to treat internal infections. Since most bacteria that cause disease in marine fish are gram-negative, and can quickly becomesystemic, Mayacin 2 would be the most effective choice.
I have some melafix would that work to place in my tank? It says it is reef safe and will help to reduce pop eye. If this will not work I can go get some chemi clean.
I would try a less radical way at first. Especially if the eye just appeared like this in the last couple of days. Try a water change and fresh carbon first. If you use frozen brine shrimp or mysis mabe try adding ground ginger to it also or garlic. We use ground ginger an garlic on our dried nori, it helps the fish ward off some illnesses. Or it has for me. We got the information from Reef Central. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... genumber=1 I know it says ich, but we have really never had any outbreaks of anything doing this. I just sprinkle it on the food. I do not really even use the dosage they use, but some is better than none. We buy our dried ground ginger from Wal-Mart in the area where the dried kitchen spices are for seasoning the foods we eat.
eye injury I think popeye should have been both eyes. This looks like an injury, you might want to let the little girl heal up in the main tank. Hopefully the eye won't get infected.
I think it is an injury as well. It looks like she has a scratch on her head too. She is not eating right now but is acting fine other than that. She must have had a fight with her boy friend.
I just got back from Normans and see others have jumped in. I agree that I think it is an injury. I don't think a water change well do much in the way of helping but the chemi clean is worth a try since it does contain erythromycin, the big question well be does it contain the proper strength. But it is worth a try. If she is not eating then it is going to be hard to get any garlic or ginger in her and they both seem to help. That is what is really nice about maracyn and maracyn 2, they contain B vits. and Believe me when I say they well get a fish to start eating. Try the chemi clean for a day or two and if nothing improves I would get her out and in a QT tank with both maracyns in it, it is really hard to determine which well work even for the experts. If it was me I would do a 10 gal water change in the display tank and use the water to fill the QT incase it is needed. I would do that before adding the chemi clean since you won't want that additional erthromycin from the chemi clean. Also the one guy offered his QT and I would maybe think about using that if things don't improve in a few days.
Isn't Chemi Clean a red slime remover? I found it on Marine Depot and it says it does not contain erythromycin. Is this the right product?
Ben I just read up on it also and you seem to be right, maybe they have changed the formula and I was going by other posts and to be honest I did think that was what the main ingredient was. As I have posted before I prefer to find out what is causing the cyno. If you do use it, you well have to buy it and a poly pad to get it out of the 75 before you can use the skimmer as it well drive it nuts. I just talked to my wife who has been a micro biologist for 30+ yrs and works everyday at N. Baptist as one and she says she would treat her in a seperate tank with both maracyn products. Doctors do it all the time if they aren't sure of the strain of bacteria. If it was me I would do that. I ahve personally used these two together quite a few times with nothing but great results. I personally would use nothing else, they just seem to work everytime. I know lots of others that have too with the same reviews. Sounds like Chenaltutor has a QT up and running, I would take him up on his offer. These products well have no ill effect on an established setup, I promise you. They have never effected any fish neg. that I have used them on or know of them being used on. I have 8 tablets of the Maracyn and each tablet treats 20 gals of actual water volume. I well be glad to give you enough if you need them and that way you can spend your money on the maracyn 2. She also said and I agree completly that since she has quit eating she has an infection. These well help her start eating again, I promise. I don't want to offend anybody, and I sure don't know everything in this hobby, but am just trying to help and I do know these products work. Let me know if you want some of the maracyn. cheers
Well guys I got home about 9 p.m. last night and she was swimming on her side towards the top of the water. I did not think she was going to make it. I quickly added the melafix I had to the tank hoping for no ill effects. This morning I woke up and the eye had reduced some and she was back to her normal self. I fed her some formula 2 flakes and she was eating fine. I realize I did not have time for the quarantine since the illness came on so quick. I plan on getting a quarantine tank soon incase something ever happens again. I am going to keep using it for a few days until she gets better. Thanks for all you guys help!
So glad to hear that Ben, this is what the next meeting well be about. Hope you don't have copy rights to this as it well be a good example to talk about.
