Struggling with Pop Eye

[ejgdi]

I have a male black molly with pretty severe pop eye that only seems to be getting worse.  I'm not sure what to try next.

I have a 40gallon breeder planted tank with an AIO kit.  Substrate is eco-complete.  I have co2 injection.  There is a large piece of Mopani wood and a few granite rocks for decoration.  It's pretty full of plants right now.  It is populated by ramshorn snails, some pond snails, and 4 black mollies that I got at the LFS a month ago, 2 males, 2 females.  The patient in question is one of the males.  Until recently he has been relatively aggressive, particularly around meal time.

A little over 2 weeks ago his left eye started to swell.  Because of his aggression, that it was only one eye, and none of the other fish showed any symptoms, I assumed it was an injury and decided to just keep an eye on it.  About a week ago the right eye started to swell.  At that point I pulled him and put him in a 5 gallon hospital tank for treatment.  I dosed maracyn and aquarium salt.  Since he is a molly and can naturally handle salty water, I started at a level 2 treatment of 1tbsp/gal.  It was introduced with a slow drip over a course of hours.  I stopped feeding him for 5 days.

Within a couple of days he started to get really lethargic.  2 days ago he started resting at the surface towards the filter wall.  His left eye began to grow white at the bottom.  He's still breathing and his gills are still moving, but he had stopped responding to my movement.  After some experimentation, I am reasonably certain he is now completely blind.  Yesterday was the end of his 5th day, so I decided to feed him and do a water change.  He couldn't find the food.  I ended up putting a LOT of food floating on the surface so he could bump into it.  When he did he'd try to get it with his mouth but mostly couldn't manage to find what he felt.  He ate maybe 4 bites before I scooped out the excess and performed the change.

After the water change, which includes salt, I added some ich-x since the maracyn didn't seem to help and in case the white spot is fungal.  As of now he's back to sitting against the wall and the surface barely moving.  And I'm not feeling confident about what the next move is.  It may be worth noting that the other three mollies appear healthy and happy.

Parameters:

• pH: between 7 and 7.5
• Nitrates: <5
• Hardness: ~14dGH (I have had some trouble keeping this steady)
• Nitrite: 0
• Ammonia: 0
• KH/Buffer: ~6
• Water Temperature: 78F

I do struggle a bit with the GH.  I use RODI water and supplement with Equilibrium.  The display tank gets co2 injection.  In general though my dGH stays within a few degrees of target.  I do a 50% WC weekly, and top off with filtered water.

This photo was taken an hour ago.  The right eye is about the same size, but not yet showing any white.

I hate losing animals in my care, even when they have been jerks.  Any advice on where I go from here is appreciated.  If he gets to a point of no return, I'd rather euthanize than force him to suffer.

[Fish Folk]

36 minutes ago, ejgdi said:

I have a male black molly with pretty severe pop eye that only seems to be getting worse.  I'm not sure what to try next.

I have a 40gallon breeder planted tank with an AIO kit.  Substrate is eco-complete.  I have co2 injection.  There is a large piece of Mopani wood and a few granite rocks for decoration.  It's pretty full of plants right now.  It is populated by ramshorn snails, some pond snails, and 4 black mollies that I got at the LFS a month ago, 2 males, 2 females.  The patient in question is one of the males.  Until recently he has been relatively aggressive, particularly around meal time.

A little over 2 weeks ago his left eye started to swell.  Because of his aggression, that it was only one eye, and none of the other fish showed any symptoms, I assumed it was an injury and decided to just keep an eye on it.  About a week ago the right eye started to swell.  At that point I pulled him and put him in a 5 gallon hospital tank for treatment.  I dosed maracyn and aquarium salt.  Since he is a molly and can naturally handle salty water, I started at a level 2 treatment of 1tbsp/gal.  It was introduced with a slow drip over a course of hours.  I stopped feeding him for 5 days.

Within a couple of days he started to get really lethargic.  2 days ago he started resting at the surface towards the filter wall.  His left eye began to grow white at the bottom.  He's still breathing and his gills are still moving, but he had stopped responding to my movement.  After some experimentation, I am reasonably certain he is now completely blind.  Yesterday was the end of his 5th day, so I decided to feed him and do a water change.  He couldn't find the food.  I ended up putting a LOT of food floating on the surface so he could bump into it.  When he did he'd try to get it with his mouth but mostly couldn't manage to find what he felt.  He ate maybe 4 bites before I scooped out the excess and performed the change.

After the water change, which includes salt, I added some ich-x since the maracyn didn't seem to help and in case the white spot is fungal.  As of now he's back to sitting against the wall and the surface barely moving.  And I'm not feeling confident about what the next move is.  It may be worth noting that the other three mollies appear healthy and happy.

Parameters:

• pH: between 7 and 7.5
• Nitrates: <5
• Hardness: ~14dGH (I have had some trouble keeping this steady)
• Nitrite: 0
• Ammonia: 0
• KH/Buffer: ~6
• Water Temperature: 78F

I do struggle a bit with the GH.  I use RODI water and supplement with Equilibrium.  The display tank gets co2 injection.  In general though my dGH stays within a few degrees of target.  I do a 50% WC weekly, and top off with filtered water.

This photo was taken an hour ago.  The right eye is about the same size, but not yet showing any white.

I hate losing animals in my care, even when they have been jerks.  Any advice on where I go from here is appreciated.  If he gets to a point of no return, I'd rather euthanize than force him to suffer.

Sorry to hear . . . I'll say, seems like you really are trying to be a good aquarist, and that really matters most of all. We can't save our fish from all sicknesses, just so our best and realize sometimes it won't work out.

If it's any small comfort . . . we had a Discus that got Popeye a few months ago. It has survived, but is blind in one eye. See photo.

Once it get to be a bacterial infection in both eyes, unless it's treated pronto, it can be hard to predict full recovery. The two things that seem to be most common culprits are (1) low water quality (2) injury -- from hardscape, or from fighting. I will suggest that a 5 gal tank is pretty hard to keep parameters stable in. I'd try at least a 10 gal or larger for a hospital tank. 

 

[Colu]

If maracyn has not if could be a gram negative bacterial infection  I would treat with kanaplex or maracyn2 but looking at the picture I don't think he has a good chance at recovering you might won't to consider euthanizeing him if you think he is suffering the  most humane way is to use clove oil

Edited April 17, 2021 by Colu

[ejgdi]

Thank you both for the advice and kind words.  I suspect @Colu is right.  I think I'll give him one more day to see if there is any sign of hope.