# Help me Save 11 year old Red Devil "Gizmo" with po



## Janis (Dec 30, 2008)

I have a huge 11 year old red devil that has popeye. He was near death (hanging upside down in a corner with red streaks on his gills and underside) when I read on a post on this site about someone who had used pima fix and it worked. I had tried melafix and jungle anti fungal and anti bacterial and salt, and he just got worse. All of the red streaks are gone and he can swim normally again however the eyes are still enlarged and sort of foggy with something that looks like a water blister on the first one that the problem started on. It has been 7 days since I started on the pimafix and he again seems to be just hanging in there and not getting any better. This all started after I moved him into a 100 gallon tank that used to contain goldfish. But it was 6 weeks later? Any suggestions?? What about Maracyn?


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## gage (Feb 7, 2007)

Doesn't make sense that pimafix did anything... as it is a fungal medication and popeye is bacterial...

regardless, for popeye, in severe cases Erythromycin or Tetracycline may be used, dose as recommended on the package. In not so severe cases Mardel's Maracyn may be used, usually Maracyn 1 and 2 are used in combination.

On a second note, it sounds like it is a fairly severe problem if he had red streaks on the body, as this generally means either nitrite poisoning or Septicemia,

Septicemia, which is a bacteria that attacks blood vessels, is extremely deadly if left to long as it can reach the vital organs of the fish.

In this case, do a bit of searching on the best med to use, as I have never had this problem.

Nitrite poisoning is not fun either, as it bonds with the hemoglobin in the fishes erythrocytes which stops oxygen from bonding which can suffocate the fish.

test your water for Ammonia and Nitrite.


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## Janis (Dec 30, 2008)

Thanks Gage, I do not know why the pimafix worked but it took all of the red streaks away and helped him swim upright. Maracyn is actually erythromycin, so I will try that. All of his water levels are perfect, (nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, ph). I had read that popeye was bacterial, so I went with melafix first and then the jungle, which has an antibiotic in it, but no luck at all. Anyway thanks for the information, and wish me luck.


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## mlancaster (Jul 24, 2009)

I am sorry to hear the troubles your RD is facing, I am glad he is swimming upright again, typically a fish in as bad a state as you have described is hard pressed to get better. Luckily you sound like you have an old time fighter on your hands. I hope he recovers. The actions you have taken and the advice from gage is all I could personally offer.

When I am treating a sick fish I keep the lights in my tank off and only let indirect light from windows provide the "daily light", I have not read that this helps it is just something I do as I think it creates a natural day/night cycle for the fish and keeps him rested (as I know lights can stress some fish out).

My final advice would be to post in the illness section (if you havenâ€™t already); there are some specialist there that might be able to provide additional information.

I am sorry to here he is so sick; I am glad he has made small improvements and hope he is better soon.

Thanks,
Matt


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## Lancerlot (Feb 22, 2006)

Can you get a picture of your Red devil. A picture is worth a thousand words and solves problems more often then words when it comes to fish. Knowing whats happening is something different then seeing what's happening


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## Janis (Dec 30, 2008)

Here are pictures of Gizmo before he was ill, on 10/27 when he was hanging upside down with the red streaks and today 11/03. Red streaks are all gone but eyes still look bad though less cloudy and he is hanging out on the bottom most of the time. Did a 30% water change this morning on the advice of a man on allexperts who said to gradually reduce the salt, however he would not advise on meds, so am going to go with the maracyn. Didn't have any yet this morning so used melafix instead of the pimafix. Am going to get the maracyn, shortly. How often should I be doing water changes? I am wondering if changing at least 10 gal each day would help but do not know if that is overdoing it. I do compensate for the medicine when I do changes. All advice is appreciated. I do not know how to get the images on to this site, however you can view them at http://s474.photobucket.com/albums/rr107/Janishaw/.[/img]


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## Janis (Dec 30, 2008)

the link should end with Janishaw/ I don't know why the .[/img] came up but it does not work if that is on there.


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## heylady (Oct 14, 2004)

If it was me, I'd be doing more than a 10% water change...I mean if you're going to be doing them daily might as well as up it to 25%. IMO clean water will do more to help your fish than any medicine.

Here's the link fixed: http://s474.photobucket.com/albums/rr107/Janishaw/


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## Janis (Dec 30, 2008)

Thanks heylady, for your input. I am going to do larger water changes, however his water was perfect in the first place( O Nitrates, 0 Ammonia, O Nitrites, and same ph he has lived in for 11 years) with of course weekly water changes. I really believe that there was some kind of pathogen in the tank from the goldfish that started all of this. Thanks also for fixing the link, how did you do it? I tried but couldn't figure it out.


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## under_control (Jan 9, 2008)

The fact that you say 0 nitrates means you either aren't testing his water, it isn't a cycled tank, or you need a new test kit.


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## Janis (Dec 30, 2008)

Hey under_control, I should have said no harmful amount of nitrates, they are actually about 7ppm, color looks more than 5 but less than 10 on the test card. I know that putting maracyn in is going to cause the whole cycle to be thrown off, but after using the jungle antibiotic I am using nutrafin cycle and things seem to be right where they need to be. It is expensive to use the nutrafin with each water change, but he is so worth it.


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## gage (Feb 7, 2007)

my flowerhorn had this... for about 2 months, then went away for a month, then came back full force within a day and killed him in 2.

I was unable to successfully treat this at all, in the end having tried Erythromycin, Tetracycline, Maracyn 1&2 combo, Metronidazole, and Melafix.

I could not find out what it was, but I don't think it was pop eye, as pop eye is not this much of a PITA in most cases. My water is perfect, much like your, being no ammonia, no nitrite, and minimal nitrates at only about 15ppm. Makes me wonder if perhaps an abundance of dissolved metals in the water can cause this... I am very clueless as to what it is caused by.

keep trying, by no means am I telling you to give up, but you need to treat it with the most powerful anti-bacterial antibiotic you can find that treats both gram positive and gram negative infections.

I wish you the best of luck in treating this.


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## heylady (Oct 14, 2004)

To fix the link all I did was remove the .[/img] and that did it.

Testing your water is great and it's excellent that your levels are good but here's the problem. All you can test for is ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, kh/gh and that's about it. There are soooo many more things in your water that you _can't_ test for. I have read many, many times where someone did only tons of water changes on a tank to cure the fish of this. At the very least it will give your fish the best chance of fighting off the infection himself.

Is he eating? This is something I learned from the saltwater side of the hobby. You can buy garlic that is almost a liquid at the grocery store. It comes in a little glass jar and it's diced very fine - has a juice to it. Or you if you have a garlic press you can make your own. But what you do is soak his food in some garlic juice before you feed it to him. Not only will the garlic stimuate his appetite but it also helps to control internal parasites. It's also supposed to be a boost for the immune system.

How's he doing today?


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## FishDorkMike (Nov 8, 2009)

Melafix works wonders with popeye in my experience.


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## SiNFuLWaYs (May 18, 2009)

melafix an water changes saved my fh.
just dont add feeders stick to frozen or other foods if it was a goldfish.

but dont go adding a million things try to stick to one otherwise its just going to make it harder on your fish. IMO.


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