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hey guys,when my lights came on this morning,i noticed that my female blue acara has popeye again(3rd time),ive checked all my water parameters,and all is as should be,so all i can put it down too,is she has bumped her eye,ether restling around with her partner(a male gt,who has tripled in size and aggression,i think he is getting a bit to ruff for her)or shooing away a small convict that shares there tank.the last couple of times she had this was when they had fry or were planning to,and they have been cleaning,shaking,shooing,so ANOTHER batch insnt far away(it seems like all they do is spawn)so do you guys think i should add some multicure,or just let it run its course,ive always used multicure,but the guys from my lfs,said that the meds have very little if any effect curing popeye when its caused by a bump,and not bad water,he said a vitiam supplement would do more,and now ive added 3 bottom feeders to this tank,and i really dont want to trash my bio filter,when all my other fish are doing so wellalso 1 other thing,i mentioned above about my gt getting bigger and badder,well when he was littler,she was incharge,and now he is,and when they spawn,her fins are getting tore up wrose each time,do you guys think it mite be time to spilt them up,even her face and top lip is getting scratched up,and he (my gt)dosent even get a tiny mark on him,plus with him wanting to spawn all the time(horny devil)its getting harder and harder to heal her fins up b4,he stars again wanting to spwan,and as most of youse would know,just a simple thing like tore fins,not getting a chance to heal up,can lead to other worse infections etc,etc.can you guys give me your opps on this ,thanx.

As you know, my acaras get exactly the same thing, I think its hormones and the stress of birth temporarily weakening the fish, I actually left it untreated last time, and it cleared up on its own. Shes there as we speak guarding a batch of fry and again her swollen left eye is going down on its own.

Same thing really, my water is sparkly clear, low on nitrate, and has already been treated for any obvious bacterial causes , its probably just a periodic thing. Perhaps just do as I do now, which is give it a week to go down, and if it actually gets any bigger only then consider meds. Im sure the best diet will help, mine basically already has about the best you can get with a range of 10 different foods,liev frozen, cichlid formulas, and pellets, granules etc, and it does seem to be clearing on its own. It might always flare up, but as long as it goes down again, I guess its ok.

well it would seem that we are in the same boat,i load mine up also with a slew of top quality food,well im just guna see what happens,and like you said ill consider meds if its get any worse.also what do you rekon about my gt longhair,do you think he getting a bit ruff or what?

yeah it does sound like he's getting a bit over the top, I know on paper blue acaras and green terrors seem pretty similar, but in true adulthood they can and do sometimes outgun acaras for size and power,their match up probably wont last forever, so it might be worth moving him somewhere he can do a little less damage should he choose to go at it. A lot of mixed species pairings start well and end badly, blue acaras are slightly more lenient in a partnership, and a gt will be less forgiving, so if they are liplocking and fin ripping it may be due time to seperate them. They probably need a partner of their own species now. Acara males are usually pretty protective of their own females, and gt females are bigger and tougher, so it might be time for them to get a prospective mate of their own species, probably in two seperate tanks, as obviously the species pairs will fight unless the tank is very large.

yeah im leaning that way too,as you would know,my acara can hold her own,but only to a point,and the gt is just getting to big,its such a shame,that im probly going to have to seperate them,normally i frown on x-breeding,but i got a bit lazy when they hooked up,and ive just let them do there thing,but now as i said,im having drama,getting her fins to heal b4 hes at it again.she did have a partner b4 and he was a ba,but he wasnt a real good speciem,compared to her anyway,so i traded him up,but they didnt have any ba males,so i got the gt.how swollen is your blueys eye?mine definatly has popeye,but its only mild,and looking at there eyes,they do protrude at the best of times,and it would be quite easy to to bump on whateva,especally when they are seeing red from chasing other fish away from there space.i wonder if its painfull for our fish?

The size of he eye usually doubles, and then goes down again over a week, its not like real popeye quite, yknow, when some fish get an eye 4 times the size and looks in danger of splitting, and it has areas where the tissue goes thin like an overstretched balloon. This is more like just having a straight swollen eye, but then with the amount of scrapping acaras do , I cant say im surprised they end up looking like a heavyweight boxer after a fight, often looking a little misty for a couple of days, but no chunks of infection etc.

I wouldnt be surprised if it causes some discomfort if not actual pain, certainly if your eye was warped youd get double vision, and that would lead to migraines, but in a fish they dont have true binocular vision, but I bet where their vision normally overlaps looks weird to them, and considering the nerves connected to about two thirds of a fish's brain are connected to the eyes , its bound to have an impact.

Having seen how some puffers react when they have popeye I wouldnt be at all surprised if they get something similar to nausea.My female acara tends to get even more vicious when her eye is swollen, occassionally biting her own mate until she realises its him just trying to guard the eggs with her, or taking his shift, and then she calms down.

Its quite funny really you should see him, he acts all indignant and sort of touches her and shakes his head out , like hes trying to shake off a knockout punch. Sometimes he gives a nip back , as if to remind her whos boss, and to chastise the silly moo for getting it wrong.He even goes up to her and fully flares his fins as if to say "its me you blind cow! LOOK!"

so thers nothing we can really do about a little bit of discomfort a?i know what you mean,just about all my chiclids hand feed,and that happens to me with my feamle bluey,ill have a worm in my fingers for her,and she nips at me untill she sees whats in my fingers,then its like, oh ok its food,CHOMP,CHOMP,next please. with my girls swollen eye,i can already see it healing,it hasnt really changed size wise yet,but i can see her eye colour coming throo,its like it peaks,then subsides.but i rekon you hit it on the head,using top quality food,thats all ive done,i just used a little more,and no treatment this time.i can already see a change,also with what you said about,horemones and being weakened from spawning,i remember the first time my ba got popeye,and the first question my guys at my lfs store asked,was she spawning,so i rekon your pretty much on point with that too,and now that i recall my girl has never had it when not spawning,so its something around those lines.anyhow hows your eggs hatched yet,i found eggs this morning,its like clockwork once you know your fish well a?
oh also,why are her fins getting so torn up now,even her side fins are getting ripped,the rear fin,i can understand,but her side fins,im baffeled

The eggs have hatched, theyre a brownish mass in the bottom of a spawning pit right now, and mommas eye is looking pretty normal.

Im not baffled about all the fins being ripped, my acaras go for any part of the body, all the fins, each others lips, and quite often smack on the forehead too. The GT 's are pretty much identical when they fight, theyre probably just doing it when youre not around. They always fight worse when youre not there. The worst damage mine get is always if ive got up late and havent fed them straight away, unobserved and taking shots at each other eggs and fry is when it kicks off the worst, especially when two pairs are doing raids across the length of the tank.

When I first had them they actually creched young, and sometimes even a second female would guard eggs for a pair, now its a damn free for all, and they keep trying to eat each others fry.

yeah ive noticed the aggresion double since yesterday,now that theyve got eggs,if the little con they share there tank with wasnt so small,he would have been flogged,i didnt really think that it would get that bad when spawning,i mean its weird,hers 2 fish that are partners,and they are tearing into each otherthe other ba male she used to have as a patner,he was much gentaler,and they didnt get real torn up,in saying that,from what you have said your ba sound alot more aggresive than mine,i only really get aggresion towards other tankmates when spawning,apart from that,my girl is gental,so gental infact,my green sev male bullied her baddly a few weeks ago.