CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

Hey guys I'm Back and I need your help. Basically I need to make sure I am going to do the right thing.
I have a 7 inch oscar and I have put him in an established hospital tank and I want to treat with Melfix.
Is the the right solution for him???
Please let me know asap
He's pretty bad!!!
Thanks again
Sabina:eek:

Ok here is some info on pop eye. I hope it will help you.Popeye or exophthalmia is a symptom, not a disease in itself and it can have a large number of potential causes. Some of these causes are incurable while others can potentially be cured on a sporadic basis. The bulging or protruding eye, as the name 'popeye' implies, is symptomatic of this condition.

Potential causes include --- infrequent water changes which results in a buildup of dissolved waste products in the water, Ichthyosporidium -- a parasitic fungus, Ichthyophonus [NOT to be confused with Ichthyophthirius, the parasite that causes "ich"/whitespot disease], 'worm cataract disease' (a function of the invasion of parasitic trematodes or flukes), bacterial infection, parasite infestation by eye flukes, and internal metabolic disorders.

Since the causes of popeye are so varied, the treatment is difficult. Some success has been noted in treatment of Ichthyosporidium using one percent phenoxyethanol at about 50gm per gallon of water.

Treatment for bacterial disease would best be accomplished using tetracycline or teramycin added to aquarium water every other day or mixing food at the rate of 100 mg of antibiotic to 4 oz. of food. Feeding should continue 10 days.

Fish tuberculosis can also be responsible for pop-eye. Since fish tuberculosis is a bacterial disease caused by such as Mycobacterium, the same antibiotics can be used in the same manner for treatment if this is the suspected cause. Other effective treatments for bacterial exophthalia may include chlortetracycline, furazolidone, nifurpirinol, oxolinic acid, oxytetracycline or potentiated sulphonamide.

Unfortunately, these treatments are most effective when injected into the eye socket and less so when used as a bath.

If the fish has eye flukes, malachite green with formalin, metriphonate or copper are good, as are most of the commercial preps for flukes and external parasites.

Popeye is rarely fatal and not particularly infectious. Bear in mind that many of these treatments will negatively impact your biological filter so treatment in an isolation tank is best.

One other cause not mentioned is trapped air behind the eyesocket. Stilllearning mentioned it in a post of his. Again, as is stated above, it is pretty much a hit or miss on the cure. In my experence, your O will be ok, but in most instance's he will lose the eye, or become blind in it. Good luck.

OK is the melafix going to help or not???
I have tetracycline if that is a better option.
How much of a water change should I do before changing medicine??
Should I continue the next 4 days with the melafix and then switch to the tetracycline or switch now???
thanks for the info I printed it for my folder!
Sabina

OK is the melafix going to help or not???

No

How much of a water change should I do before changing medicine??

25%

Should I continue the next 4 days with the melafix and then switch to the tetracycline or switch now???

Switch now but if your sure its popeye then use something like erythromycin (common human med that is available in powder form for fish) or tmp sulfar(sold as sulfarTMP I believe)
Tetracycline(also used in humans) does help with gram negative disease so if you cant source the other 2 in a hurry then yes use that.. Im just not overly sure how succesfull it works
If you have probs getting meds from a LFS then try a vet. In regards to erythromycin I have used the human version of it sold at chemists (used it on a oscar I rescued from a LFS that had dropsy) Getting a script for it maybe a problem though. I used a repeat script I had and prescription meds for humans in australia are pretty cheap compared to other countries(our govt heavily subsidizes most meds)

If possible though post a pic as often enough things like cloudy eye can be confused with popeye if the eye is swollen.

Oh yeah if its true popeye (resulting from kidney problems) dont use any forms of salt other than epsom salts as it may make the situation worse .

Thanks for the help!
The eye itself is not cloudy at all it is just sticking out! the "skin" around the eye that has come out with the eye is white like stretched skin.
I have done 5 days with the tetracycline and it has gone down a little but the one improvement has been that he is moving it normally now. It does not seem to be bothering him very much.

Great to hear!!!!Keep up the treatment, for at least 5 days more. Hopefully everything will return to normall.

Hey,
I have put him back with the rest of the fish in the 100 but he isnt doing well. He sits at the bottom, sometimes on his side sometimes vertical???? he doesn't swim around and hasnt eaten in almost 3 weeks!!!
from reading some of the posts im thinking "swimbladder" but who knows???
If things get really bad what is the most humane way to put a fish out of its obvious misery???? especally one as big as this one!!
the eye is not smaller than it was 4 or 5 days ago.
sabina

If you end up having to go the route of euthinasia. I would recomend the freezing method. To me, it seems the least painfull for the fish, and not very painfull for the owner to do. Simply place the fish in the freezer, in a bag, and let the cold do its work. From my understanding in ppl, freezing is not an extremly bad way to go, so I would like to think it would be the same for a fish.
Now as to the current situation, It sounds like an internal bacterial infection. Or possibly a kiddney malfunction. You might try switching meds, if you can. Sometimes, one illness weakens the fish enough, that other problems arise. All you can do is try your best, and see how things turn out.

erythromycin probably would have been best to use and possibly it may still stabilize it. Unfortunatly once the internal organs are damaged its usually irreversable.

thats what i did to my oscar when he ran agains a rock and cut himself almost in half my first oscar

Hi....sorry but i dont agree with the whole freezing method.its a slow and painful way to kill a fish.(just like it would a human.)
The quickest way(if you can bring yourself to do it )is to cut the spinal cord of the fish,which is just behind its neck and gills.

..jay