# Wth is this!? My poor little guys :(



## KMNL (Sep 4, 2008)

I have already posted a topic about my male hongi, I got little input. This morning, I noticed that my one male fuellborni has a very puffy, inflammed, & bulgy eye. The hongi had a piece of flesh and a whitish-gray disc forming around its one eye. I just did a water change on Saturday and there were no problems until recently. I am now treating the water with melafix and bacteria treatment. I'd appreciate any input on what this could possibly be. I just feel awful 

Here's poor Curly. . .



























And here's Mr. Jiggles. His eye seems like its healing up, but the gray disc is starting to surround his entire eye. His case isn't as bad at the fuellborni's though. . .


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## kodyboy (Dec 9, 2007)

kind of looks like pop-eye or maybe malawi bloat (although the scales are usually raised with that). What are you feeding them?


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## KMNL (Sep 4, 2008)

I feed them flakes. I give them brine shrimp once a month as a treat. But their main diet consists of flakes and lettuce. Is pop-eye treatable?


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## ladyluck777 (Apr 20, 2009)

I'm by no means an expert, but I've been told that brown around the gills are signs of nitrite poisoining, is that brown on the hongi's gill always there? The first one does look like pop-eye to me as well, which I've also heard can sometimes be caused by poor water parameters (which would explain the nitrite poisoning). I would post this under the "Illness/Health/Nutrition" board and see what kind of responses you get.


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## xalow (May 10, 2007)

> I've been told that brown around the gills are signs of nitrite poisoining, is that brown on the hongi's gill always there?


I don't see the brown spot. Do you mean in the last picture? If so that is the fish's pectoral fin pointing nearly directly at the camera.

For more people to give advice I agree you should try to get this moved to the illness section.

Its not lupus, most likely popeye. What do your water test readings come up with. Since more than one fish seems to have had a problem I isn't really likely that the both just injured their eyes.

I would add a bit of Epsom salt to help the eye swelling go down. Chances are its some sort of infection related to water quality so it would be helpful to know more details about your tank.


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## Dave (Feb 9, 2003)

looks like popeye.


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## SiNFuLWaYs (May 18, 2009)

If you havent already solved here is a little info....

Freshwater Popeye, aka Exophthalmia:

Possible causes include internal bacterial infections
by Exophthalmus and Corneybacteriosis, trauma to the eye, and a suboptimal environment. It is common for a fish suffering from bacterial pop eye to become infected by fungi due to its weakened state.

Environmental factors can include factors such as high levels of ammonia, ammoniac, nitrite, or nitrate, or otherwise poor water quality. It can also be caused by a carbon dioxide level in the water that is too high as a result of carbon dioxide enrichment of the water. If the carbon dioxide is released as bubbles the fish can swallow them, and this can cause pop eye.

Different types of pop eye require different treatments. Pop eye caused by trauma can often heal by itself if given optimal conditions. Move the fish with pop eye to a tank where it can be alone and won't get stressed by other fish. Make sure to keep perfect water quality in the tank. Adding a tablespoon of Epson salt for every 5 gallon of water in your tank may help the recovery

Treat bacterial pop eye with a broad spectrum antibiotic. That is usually effective if the infection hasn't progressed too far already. A fish given antibiotics can recover even from severe cases, but the more severe the case is the harder it will be to successfully treat it.


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