Treating popeye

[ange]

Hi all, one of my lil guys got bonked pretty hard within the last few weeks and he's not gotten better so he's starting treatment today. Here are some photos of his "starting point" for documentation. My treatment setup is a 10 gallon with 3 tbs of aquarium salt, a seeded sponge filter, and silk plants. This tank doesn't have lighting but does get ambient light from an open window. He's always been incredibly lively compared to my other sparkling gouramis and his behavior hasn't changed so I'm sure that he'll bounce back with minimal long-term harm.

Whenever I find a disease, I try to log progress so that it's available as a reference to others. Hopefully someone is able to learn something here. If he gets worse I do intend to add antibiotics for potential infection, but I always start with salt for popeye as it helps the fish with osmotic regulation and relieves the pressure on their corneas.

[ange]

Update on the swelling, he has not gone down at all (which is pretty normal in my experience) but isn't exhibiting any signs of stress so I'm about to do a 25% water change (and suck up the tank gunk that has come from the sponge filter) and add another tablespoon of aquarium salt. This will slightly increase the salinity. When treating with salt I always track my water changes and salt additions so that I can still track my concentration. 

[ange]

It's time for our 1 week check-in on our poor guy. We're currently at a salt content of about 1.25 tablespoons per 3 gallons. He's been eating a mix of baby brine, Walter worms, and daphnia and as the picture shows, his eye is nowhere near better. Due to the holiday I won't be making adjustments tonight, but I intend to do a 50% water change and add 4 tablespoons of salt to the tank tomorrow.

An unintended consequence of separating him is that the other sparkling gouramis have shown themselves far more often. He was definitely the tank boss and it seems that I've disrupted the pecking order.

Edited November 24, 2023 by ange
units

[ange]

Did the water change + got some significantly better photos. The fourth and fifth also illustrate why I love this guy so much. He's easily the vivid of my sparkling gouramis.

To summarize the changes so far:

Nov 16 - Started treatment. 10 gallon aquarium, 3 tablespoons of salt.
Nov 18 - 25% water change. Added 1 tablespoon of salt.
Nov 24 - 50% water change. Added 3 tablespoons of salt.

In other news, we may see some other photo additions to this thread. Two of the angelfish at my workplace have become exceptionally territorial and caused some eye trauma to one of the others. We've isolated the two, as the female is bulging with eggs. If the pair can cohabitate well I'll seriously consider proposing that we rehome the other two. It's a difficult situation because I don't have much control over the stocking even though I manage our aquatic living exhibits.

 

[ange]

We're starting to see a slight change in presentation. His eye is clouding, so there's definitely more damage than just the swelling. It's the most visible from the front. Luckily he's been eating well. He finished the last of my brine shrimp hatchery today so I've started a fresh batch. Depending on how he progresses from here I may start on tubifex worms soaked in VitaChem (nutrition) to give him a little extra. I don't intend to medicate unless there are symptoms of infection. So far there are none. The second photo appears clamped, but that's due to movement. He's every bit the fish that he was back when he was in the big tank.

[ange]

I missed the 3 week check-in by a few days but here's where we're at now. We've done an additional 50% water change and added 4 tablespoons of salt back in. His diet is the same, baby brine shrimp and Walter worms. At this moment in time I'd guess that there's an okay change that he keeps the eye, albeit with some funk. He's eating well!

Regarding the angelfish at work who (coincidentally) got her eye beat up as well. She's doing much better even though she was initially in worse condition. Our quarantine tanks are not good for taking photos so I unfortunately don't have any.

 

[ange]

It's been a busy season! Here are some photo updates (plus a bonus of one of my tanks at work) from Tuesday this week. Swelling is far down, but the eye appears to be lost. This is definitely one of the toughest cases that I've treated without complications from infection. This weekend I plan to put him back in the main tank.

[ange]

I wound up keeping him in and I'm glad that I did. As of this morning, the eye is definitely gone. It was likely gone beforehand but under all of the gunk I couldn't tell. He's going to get a full course of Maracyn while this heals and may need to live the rest of his life solo. Luckily his other eye is looking good!

This is definitely in the extreme regarding how far popeye goes. Sometimes healing doesn't set you back to the original state, just like for people.