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Persistance is expected with pop-eye infections, not only does the pathogen have to be iradicated, but the body has to have an opportunity to reroute the fluids causing the swelling of the eye, its actually early days yet.

D'oh
I've gotta stop being impatient.
The directions on the pack said " 1 tablet per 40litres of water. Repeat treatment in 3 days if necessary " so I guess I thought it might clear up quickly.
The water has become quite cloudy...don't know if that's from the meds or maybe an algal bloom due to the lack of bacteria.

"if you're goin swimmin,watch out for the noahs"

That is possible, dead bacteria will cause misty water.

A lot of "on the pack information" is a little optimistic, and you should always be prepared to hang in there for a repeat treatment with a week long break inbetween if necessary. There is no way packaging information could be expected to give you the 3-4 page essay of treatment variables, so they tend to just give you a single treatment protocol based on average values. With diseases its never a case of "what it says on the tin" theres simply too many variables and mitigating circumstances.

It is possible that the eye has been purged of infection, but until the swelling reduces a little you have no confirmation of this, and there is still a good chance of reinfection.

Its a gamble I cant give you odds on, and there is of course the arguement that repeated treatments have an inherant risk, and quarantines almost never suit fish psychologically, or in terms of water quality.

Basically make your best guess on the fish's stress levels and condition as to whether to include him back into community, or keep him in quarantine. Ultimately its better to lose the eye than the fish, but a bacterial or fungal problem unsolved will probably re-emerge to cause trouble.

Personally I might wait long enough to see a reaction from the eye, but the choice is yours, you see the fish everyday, and I can't.

Its best guess time.

His eye is a little hard to get a look at because of the water being cloudy & also because he keeps hiding it ( I wonder if that's a safety response ? )
but it does appear to have some white tufty material trailing from it,looks a little scabby if anything.
By the way git I'm really enjoying your photos in photo booth,I'm afrid my photographic skills are nowhere near your level.
Cheers.....ash

"if you're goin swimmin,watch out for the noahs"

Thanks for the pic comments' im glad you enjoyed them.

Actually would you consider contributing a 200 kb pic of your angel and popping it into the pop-eye disease profile? It helps others a lot to see complaints like this one visually.

The angel might well be sloughing off a lot of damaged skin slime from the affected area, this is actually a good sign, just a part of the healing process, although they sometimes also slough off large amounts of skin slime in reaction to detectable nitrite and ammonia or high nitrate , so perhaps giving him a break back in community might not be a bad idea, and see how he goes.As you said the quarantines water quality has gone to hell, so it might be worth emptying it out. Might be a good idea though, to ascertain if indeed it is just slime or fluffy pathogens like fungus or columnaris.

Can you post a pic of the tufty stuff?

Have included some more recent shots....
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s74/von_richtofen/gill1.jpg
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s74/von_richtofen/gill2.jpg
http://i149.photobucket.com/albums/s74/von_richtofen/gill3.jpg
doesn't look all that great & unfortunately only got a good view of it once I had put him back in the main tank..

"if you're goin swimmin,watch out for the noahs"

The last picture shows what looks like a kind of bacterial infection formed into small towers that are produced by the pathogen known as Nocardia.

Looks like your angel has managed to pick up one of the lesser known causes of pop-eye! Maracyn ,kanamycin or a reaonable equivalent containing minocycline will kill it. If you cant get any of those treatments, try 20 minute salt baths.

Home with the flu at the moment so,can't get out to get any meds so I will try the salt baths,if he let's me catch him ( he's got net phobia )
I tried to upload a photo (about 125kb) to the disease profiles,but,I keep getting an error message so I must be doing something wrong. I will try again.
Thanks...Ash

"if you're goin swimmin,watch out for the noahs"

I'ts been a few weeks so I thought it might be time for an update...
The angel in question has lost his left eye,it is still attached but hanging off at right angles. His right eye was starting to show some bacterial buildup as well,but, that seems to have cleared so hopefully he will have one eye that works. He's not as dominant as he used to be,but,other than that seems to be in reasonable health.
I initially tried triple sulfa tabs,then melafix for two weeks as well as salt baths ( which he didn't like all that much )I'll let you know how he progresses....Ash

"if you're goin swimmin,watch out for the noahs"

Its great news that he hasnt died and that you managed to save one eye, that was a serious looking infection. I'd keep doing occassional treatments until the worst affected eye has a chance to seal up , drop out, and do whatever it takes to heal over. From that last pic of him, youd have probably lost the eye no matter what, but youve done the main thing and managed to stop it progressing and save his life, and avoid total blindness. Well done. Make sure he gets lots of top quality foods and the healing and tissue replacement should go well.

Hi Ace,

Well done on getting your angel this far.

Several years ago I also had an angel lose an eye that still went on to live a long and (I hope) happy life.

The damaged eye socket looked terrible for a while but eventually healed over leaving a kind of depression where the eye used to be.

What was interesting to note was that the fish became extra senstive to bright or flickering lights and to rapid motion near the tank. Any sudden lights or activity would send him into a spin, literally!! He would freak out, do backflips and generally thrash around in the water for a few seconds. It was particularly noticeable when the flourescent room lights were swithched on each morning.

It was pretty scary to watch for a while until we worked out that his visual perception must never have fully adjusted to that loss of the eye. Once we realised that it was a simple matter of adjusting the routine to minimise startling him (eg switching on the kitchen light before the one closest to his tank), avoiding rapid movements around the tank, rearranging he tank decor to minimise the risk of him injuring himself and keeping the tank covered so he couldn't throw himself out of the tank with his thrashing.

Best of luck with your buddy... you got it this far so hopefully it turns out well for you.

G_T





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