tetra with bad eye

[Starfish]

One of my black skirt tetras has one eye protruding. The other eye is fine. I did not notice this yesterday when I was cleaning the tank. I was puttering around in the tank more than usual and am wondering if it got scared and ran into something hurting its eye. Or is it a disease or infection?

The water perameters before the cleaning yesterday were ammonia and nitrites 0, but nitrates were a little high. So I did a water change and planned on changing it again tomorrow. The tetra is behaving normally, eating and swimming as usual.
Here are some pics.

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It is a little fuzzy but you can see how the right eye is protruding out from the body
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You can see the tetra's bad eye compared to the good eye of the other tetra
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I do not have a hospital tank at the moment. I was planning on getting one next time I got down to the city, but looks like I will be heading out to my local LFS to pick up something tomorrow.

[Laura]

While it's always better to quarantine and treat, if it were me, I would start a mild aquarium salt treatment on the tank, (assuming no salt senstive critters are in there).

[Ursus sapien]

pop eye has several possible causes, from what I can gather, anything from TB to poor water quality. It can be viral or bacterial...
There's lots about it on the 'net, but wait and see what the more experienced members come up with before you do anything more than extra water changes.

[CACAdmin]

A bucket with an airstone can substitute as a hospital tank for a short time if need be.

[Starfish]

The tetra looks the same this morning. After looking out the window at the blowing snow and reduced visibilty, and not having any other reason to drive into town, I decided to go with the bucket idea. (I did enough sliding around on the highway yesterday) I have a rubbermaid storage container about 5g that I can put an airstone in. Hopefully that will do until tomorrow when I have to go into town to take the kids to band practice, unless of course it is a snowday.

[Ursus sapien]

this (http://www.fishlore.com/aquariummagazine/dec07/fish-popeye.htm)may be helpful

[Starfish]

Thanks, that link was very helpful. I didn't find that one in my searching but it seemed to give the best info. So it could very well be that I need to increase my water change volume.

It also says pop-eye can happen from too much dissolved oxygen in the water. I was concerned that there was not enough O2 because of the canister filter and the outflow being too far below the surface. So I raised the outflow a bit and added an airstone. But I can't see how that would be too much O2. However, there are tiny little bubbles floating all throughout the tank now. Should that happen?

I have isolated Popeye, as I have now named him, and will try the epsom salt treatment tomorrow.

[GaryofMontreal]

I have heard (never seen) that you can get eye protrusions on fish if you change water when it is super cold outside. The water may be warm from the hot/cold mix, but the cold can be supersaturated with oxygen. Nothing technological can do it (you can't have caused this with the aeration changes!), and I'm skeptical about the super-saturation story, although that clearly is not good for fish.
The last time I dealt with it, it turned out to be a broken piece in the filter that had reduced the flow to next to useless without my noticing (internal filter....). It was a pollution issue, and bacterial. The fish lost the eye but survived.
Over the years, three or four other fish here haven't. I always take it as a symptom of dirty water or not enough water changes.
I wouldn't salt an Amazon tetra like that, as it will stress it. They've evolved in soft water, and their system does not always handle salt well.

I would keep the tank clean, and not quarantine. Water changes should do it, as much as anything can be done. A cooler, strange, unfiltered hospital container is serious stress, especially for a schooling animal. Whatever pathogen has hit, every fish in there has already been exposed by the time you see symptoms, so you gain nothing.

[Starfish]

I have heard (never seen) that you can get eye protrusions on fish if you change water when it is super cold outside. The water may be warm from the hot/cold mix, but the cold can be supersaturated with oxygen.

I always let my water sit for 24hrs at room temp before using it in the tank, so I don't think that would be the problem. I think you are probably right that it is a pollution issue and need to step up my water changes. Thanks.

[fishclubgirl]

Perhaps you could fashion him a little "eyepatch". Make him look right piratey!!!!

[Starfish]

Perhaps you could fashion him a little "eyepatch". Make him look right piratey!!!!

Good idea. Then he could fit in with the pirate decor in my daughter's tank. :laugh:

[mollybawn]

I had an oscar at my work a few years ago that had a bad eye. Looked just like that. I didn't salt him, but I did give him treatment for a bacterial infection. It didn't seem to make a difference. After a while his eye fell out, and he didn't really seem to miss it. He looked really bad a** and every one loved him. He lived for over a year with one eye. Might just be something isolated to the one fish. But pop eye is pretty common. You should be able to treat it but his eye may not go back in all the way.