# popeye the sailor man



## non_compliance (Dec 4, 2008)

great.. more problems.

I'm hoping that they're not related.

I'm a little late on my weekly water change this week.. so I"m hoping that the problem is an injury, or from a little bit messy water. We shall see. I am taking my water to the LFS for testing this afternoon. I don't have testing stuff yet.

I just had a fish die 2 days ago.. but it was in a hospital tank. (see my other post)

Also, my OB looks like he may be on the verge of getting a pop-eye... I"ll be keeping a very close eye.

I've read all about pop-eye on here, and I"m hoping waterchanges will fix it. I might hospitalize him and give melafix.. but I'm apprehensive because of the fish death in my hospital tank. I"m getting the hospital water tested today as well.


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

Focus on water quality with increased partial water changes and also increased aeration. 
Make sure you're using a good quality declorinator especially if your tap water has chloramines added to it. Not all declorinators properly deal with chloramines. (see article linked below).

Robin


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## non_compliance (Dec 4, 2008)

Thanks for the help. I did a 50% water change today.. The water tested ok at the LFS. (before the water change) I think she said it was showing 0 ammonia 0 nitrites and 25 ppm nitrate... so a bit high there, but nothing horrible. I'm going to leave him in the main tank for a day or 2 more, and if he doesn't improve, I will quarantine him and treat with myacin two.. or whatever it's called.... Fish has been hiding a lot.. there's a big fake rock that they can swim inside of, so h'es been hanging out there. We'll see what happens.

i'm using PRIME for dechlorinator.

Thanks for help.


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## non_compliance (Dec 4, 2008)

Now i"ve moved him to the hospital tank.. and his pop eye looks like it has blood behind it. I'm treating with marycin-two. Any suggestoins??

The marycin didn't seem to mix into the water very well.. do you usually mix it in a small cup with some water first, or just sprinkle it in the wateR???


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

I usually just sprinkle it in the water--as long as you have fairly good water movement it should be ok.

Antibiotics take time to work and sometimes you have to do two full doses--as instructed on the package. The Mardel literature says that you want to use Maracyn-two for pop-eye so you've got the right med. If there's no improvement after the second dose then you might switch to plain Maracyn or one of the other Mardel med recommended for popeye. TriSulfa, Tetracycline Tablets or Maracyn-plus. 
Most antibiotics target specific bacteria's, (Maracyn treats gram-positive, Maracyn-two, gram-negative) so since we can't know exactly what sort of bacteria a fish has without a microscope sometimes we have to try different meds until we get the right one.

Robin


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## non_compliance (Dec 4, 2008)

thanks Robin... I was pretty gunshy about moving this fish to the hospital tank after the recent loss... but so far so good. I also have maracyn just sitting around. Should I dose them at the same time?

I don't have that great of water movement because of the sponge filter, but I guess it was good enough because the stuff seems to have all disolved...

thanks again for your help.

Side note: Should the sponge filter be upright? I have it laying on its side because it was too tall...


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

Yes you can dose with both Maracyns at once.

I think the sponge filter should be fine on its side. As long as it's working properly.

Test the tank water every day or so--just always a good thing to do whenever you're medicating.

And you're welcome--  
Let me know how it goes

Robin


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## non_compliance (Dec 4, 2008)

Also, will this fish's eye explode? It's filled up with blood and is not looking so good.. heh.. will he just get a tear in the membrane around the eye to release the pressure or what? That sucker looks like it can't take much more!!!! *poP!!!

So far so good... he's survived about 4 hours in the hospital tank of death... 

I really want to poke that eye with a hypodermic needle... heh.. it looks like it's pretty owie..


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## non_compliance (Dec 4, 2008)

Should I be doing waterchanges during the treatment? I thought I read that you shouldn't do any until the 5 days is up.....

Fish has survived 24 hrs in the hospital tank of death!!!!


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## non_compliance (Dec 4, 2008)

Here's the latest pictures... eye has gone back down, but now looks like there's other problems... what do you think? I'm continuing the maracyn and maracyn-two treatments.... today is day 5. Water is starting to get cloudy/murky... so I siphoned and did about 40% water change with PRIME dechlorinator... I added malawi buffer (1 tsp/ 10 gal) and aquarium salt (1 tbl/ 10 gallon)

Water parameters yesterday...

PH 7.2
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
nitrate 10-20 ppm
temp: 77-79f

Sidenote: I never realized he has RED toofers... hehe... I hope he pulls through.. I hope his eye doesn't fall out! He can move it again... and is SIGNIFICANTLY less cloudy.


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## non_compliance (Dec 4, 2008)

I can't believe no one had anything to say about this fish's eye...

he died during the night last night. Not sure what happened. I tested the water hours before he died... 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, less than 10 ppm nitrate, 8 PH, 78 degrees....

I guess he just got too much of an infection in that eye.


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## Morpheus (Nov 12, 2008)

I'm sorry for your loss.


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## non_compliance (Dec 4, 2008)

the thing that gets me the most about this, is those fish went from june to october without a SINGLE water change.

I inherited this tank from a coworker who passed away. He was in the hospital starting in mid june. I think he only did water changes like every 2 weeks or even longer....

I started doing weekly water changes, and moved the tank to my home in november. I have been religious about water changes and water testing. The levels in the tank have never been better. Now, I'm getting sick fish.. dying fish...etc.. wtf?!?!

Not a single thing happened while they were in the FILTHY tank.. no sickness.. no deaaths... nothing... I fed them, and added water when it evaporated a couple of inches. I also scrubbed the glass to clean the algae... doesn't make sense. NO problems with filthy tank with 1.0 ppm ammonia, .5 ppm nitrite, 100+ nitrate, GH and KH were higher though... 13 and 9... although now it's 7 gh and 9 kh...

Doesn't make sense to me. aarrgghhH!!! They've been in a clean enviornment for over 2 months. They've been on city water for over 2 months. :-? :-? :-? :-? :-? :-?


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## Morpheus (Nov 12, 2008)

I am extremely new to keeping fish and can only offer a speculation that possibly being in the poor water conditions did long term damage that nothing you could have done would have reversed. :-?

Sorry for your loss.


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## wishart (Jul 30, 2008)

It really does suck that you lost that fish. But you never know.. maybe it was a natural cause :lol: But truly it was a nice tank and water didn't look to bad.. Just was a weak fish maybe.


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## non_compliance (Dec 4, 2008)

The only thing I can think of is I buffered the tank to raise the PH from 7.2 to 8. Is that too much of a change overnight?


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

non_compliance said:


> The only thing I can think of is I buffered the tank to raise the PH from 7.2 to 8. Is that too much of a change overnight?


Yes. 
At low ph levels any ammonia present in the tank would have been harmless to your fish. When you raised the ph the ammonia would have been converted to it's toxic form and could have very easily killed the fish. Fast.

But we don't know that's what happened. It very well could have been the infection in the eye that had spread internally where you couldn't see it. The sudden rise in ph, even without any ammonia present, would have definitely stressed the fish and perhaps since he was already in a weakend state it pushed him over the edge.

Sorry you lost the fish. All you can do is try your best, which you did, but even still, sometimes they don't make it.

Robin


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## PaulineMi (Apr 3, 2008)

Sorry another one is gone. How frustrating!


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## overleaf (Jan 18, 2009)

Wow, the photo's of the eye look really bad, like it was oozing onto the scales and eating the skin away. Ouch.

Sorry for your loss, and thanks for sharing. This is the first time I've seen anything like that.


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## non_compliance (Dec 4, 2008)

Yeah.. it was weird. He first got the pop eye... then after he was put into the hospital tank I noticed that it looked like ti was filled up with blood behind the eye... I dont' know if he injured it further somehow, or in the move... or what.. then all the flesh just started to come off... Poor guy...


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