Best Medicine For Swollen White Eye?

Question

I got a Male Peacock Cichlid this week & his left eye was scraped in a violent amateur netting. The guy at the store practically dragged him across the gravel sideways. Over the past 2 days, his eye has been covered with a white film that bulges out over the eye and appears to have a hole in the center of it... The eye underneath looks intact. It looks like a puss barrier encasing the eye. Its very puffy & large. Like tripple the distance that his other eye extends from his body.

Is there a reccommended medicine for this sort of thing? I started putting melaflix in the water, but I don't know that its the correct thing to use.

He's one of these....
http://cjexotics.com/images/alunarubadmale.jpg

Unfortunately my digital camera was stepped on recently, so I can't take a picture of his affliction to share. I haven't had to deal with many injured fish in my time. I got him for a steal (he was in the wrong tank at petsmart & I got him for $4 - he is an adult)

Answer 1

There are two causes for this type of appearance on a fishes eye. Trauma or bacteria infection. Since the fish has a confirmed recent history of trauma and went right into a well maintained clean tank, let's assume it's the trauma and not an infection. Very clean water and an extra dose of salt would be my recommendation at this point. If the eye appears to be intact and you aren't seeing any fungus or off colors in the film (white is normal and fine, you don't want to see yellow, green, brown, black etc.) then I would assume he is healing just fine. Add salt up to about 2-3 ppm to aid in the recovery ( roughly guessed, 2-3 tsp per 5 gallons depending on the salt used). That's above and beyond whatever salt level you normally have in the tank. Increasing tank temp to 86-88 would also help and help ward off infections and fungi. Increase the temp slowly, maybe a degree every 6 hours or so and keep it there for a few weeks. Of course at temps that high extra water motion is a good idea to keep the O2 levels high.

At this point I would advise against antibiotics as they damage your nitrogen cycle and stress that fish and any others in the tank and it doe not sounds as if you have a bacteria infection going on. That sounds like normal healing.

EDIT: Pop eye take 2-4 days to develop and distend the eye from the orbit to that extent. If you didn't see a problem when you bought the fish, it's very, very unlikely to be pop eye.

Answer 2

If you can, put him in a QT tank. Melafix is correct. I would also add aquarium salt to help him heal. Make sure the water is very clean(ie change 50% every day or 2). Add melafix according to directions and add salt per gallon removed(per directions). Looks to me to be a Ngara peacock, I happen to breed this type. Males are awesome when in full color. He should heal within 2 weeks if all is done correctly. Oh just seen Petsmart, prolly a german red peacock, hard to ID without a pic of actual fish. Anyway $4 is a STEAL. Hope he gets better soon, so you can enjoy.

Answer 3

From your description, this sounds like an infection started from the injury you described.

*First make sure you have good water conditions (electrolytes are key here), ph for this fish should be over 8 and a kH of at least 240 is best.

* A topical treatment with Mebromin (which is hard to find do to a misguided ban) is extremely effective as a first step. Here is a site found on the internet for this:
http://www.seahorsesource.com/cgi-bin/shop/detail.cgi?id=300137
Methylene Blue dripped directly on the eye can is an excellent first step alternative.

*As for in tank treatments, eye infection are often caused by aeromonas bacteria. An organic treatment could be the Melafix you mentioned or a combination Melafix (which is mostly gram positive) and Pimafix (primarily gram negative)
Usnic acid is another organic remedy that works for this.

For antibiotics, Nitrofurazone, Triple sulfa, Neomycin and occasionally ampicillin work for this.

For much more about medications please read this article:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Medication.html


For more general aquarium information including links about electrolytes and KH:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Information.html


PS, I know the picture is not your fish, but these are one of my favorite Malawi Cichlids

Answer 4

Sounds like your fish ended up with a sort of bacterial infection.
A fish infected with a bacterial disease should be treated in a separate tank( if possible). The best medicine is a broad spectrum gram negative antibiotic such as furan, kanamycin sulfate, or spectrogram. There are other possible treatments.

However, your fish due to what you have said seems more to be suffering from Pop eye. Pop Eye itself is not a disease, but a condition resulting from one of several possible problems: a bacterial infection (it can contract fungus as a secondary infection afterwards) environmental problems (poor water quality, etc) or trauma to the eye via an accident or injury from an aggressive tankmate. The fish may appear to have a large clear bubble over one or both eyes. The eye(s) will protrude out from the fish's head and may also be cloudy.

Only one eye bulging typically indicates that the problem has occured due to an injury to the eye somehow: the eye responds by swelling and retaining fluid buildup. Quarantining the fish and giving it clean water will help it to heal on its own with a little bit of time and isolation to reduce stress. Epson salt can help (1 tablespoon per five gallons; repeat with a half dose on day three as per WetWebMedia).

If both eyes exhibit symptoms, it is probably a bacterial infection. Treat with medication such as Maracyn, Penicillin, or Tetracycline. Neomycin sulphate (use 250 mg/gallon) is an antibiotic which is affective against a wide range of gram+ and gram- bacteria. You can find other broad spectrum antibiotics here. In advanced stages if there is a deep bacterial infection, it can be difficult to treat. Feed medicated food to the fish (it can be hard to get antibacterial medication inside the fish; most simply won't absorb). Medicate with antibiotics in a hospital tank to prevent damaging the biofilter in tanks.

Check out this link it shows pictures simmilar to your fish:
http://www.fishjunkies.com/Diseases/popeye.php

PS Sorry for your troubles, however it is a nice looking fish! I don't blame you for buying him! Good luck and let us know how he makes out.

Answer 5

The condition is a bacterial infection commonly known as 'Pop-eye'. It is a fairly serious bacterial infection caused by trauma to the affected eye. They do make chemical remedies for this condition and there are some home remedies also. One thing you can do is remove (if you can) to a treatment tank. Make sure the water in the treatment tank is suitable for the fish. It is in this tank that you can use the chemical remedies. Most are just fishy versions of anti-biotics. Or what you can do is add a little aquarium salt to your tank. But make sure its AQUARIUM salt. Table salt will kill your fish quick. The usual dosage for treatment is 1 tsp per 10 gallons. I like this method first because it is a natural remedy and it is less stressful on the fish. Also if you dont have a treatment tank, it saves you money. Just be sure to dissolve the salt in some of the tank water in a seperate container, as salt can give fish a severe chemical burn if they try to eat it. Most fish diseases like Ick, Velvet, Worms, and other parasites use osmosis to equalize themselves to their environment, so they suck up a ton of salt...cant expell it and simply explode and die. Your filter should clean up the mess. make sure you do 10% water changes every week until you notice an improvement. Then change your filter and do a 25% water change. GOOD LUCK!

Answer 6

medicines that claim to cure more than one type of problem are usually lying, there are anti bacterials, and anti parasites, and they're all different, and then there's the crappy ones that claim to do everything with only natural ingredients and often don't do very much. you need the right medicine for the particular organism or disease. unfortunately there's not very many medicated fish foods, they're usually the most effective for many illnesses. Ich is best treated with a good ich treatment, although I don't know that you have ich.

Answer 7

is he in an isolation/hospital tank at the moment?
if i was in your situation i would also be using melafix, it's great for helping to heal and sooth wounds.

keep his water IMMACULATE and hopefully he'll begin to heal, but if the damage really is that severe he may lose the eye, or at least be blind.

and i would have words with that guys manager! with pictures of the damage.