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Hi everyone,

Just moved all my fish into a bigger tank; they all faired well except for one of my tetras.

He has developed some sort of grey film over ONE of his eyes and it looks *a little* bugged (popped out)--but not severely--it looks more inflamed than popped out.
He's off his food and doesn't swim too much--only what it takes to stay in one spot.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Either the eye was damaged from netting or he has the early signs of Dropsy, an often fatal disease in later stages...

But, could be anything, perhaps just a fungus coating from damage.

Watch the fish for awhile to determine if he will start eating again. If not, the fish is in danger of thinning out and dying.

If any bloating appears the fish should be destroyed.

--garyroland.



[span class="edited"][Edited by garyroland 2004-08-04 16:03][/span]

OMG gary. . . . you didn't mention water quality!

Ok megyoga. . . by any chance could you give us some numbers. . . Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate. Also, are any of the other fish in the tank looking/acting funny? What size tank is it and what are you stocked with? In order to give you good helpful info we need a little help.

Cloudy-eye is often a symptom of poor water quality, which would also cause your fish to be lethargic and go off of food. By all means, there is a very good chance you're dealing with something nastier like an infection. Pop-eye IME is almost always tracable to dirty water.

Like gary said, if you see any other signs of dropsy, the chance of survival is low and you may want to euthanize. Either way, do you have a spare tank you can use for quarantine?

Well, just as I was about to fire off a long reply, I went back to check on him and found him dead. Poor little guy. He was about a year old so maybe just old age plus the combined stress of moving. I try not to net my fish, I use a cup and just transport them with the water, so it wasn't trauma from a net.
Weird though...he didn't show any other signs of anything except that eye...I examined it (after he died) and it looks like the actual eye kind of "popped out" and what was left was a cylindrical "tube" sticking out from him where the eye used to be. Strange. I've seen eyes missing, but nothing like this.

On the other hand, parameters are all normal and all the rest of the fish look nice and healthy, with voracious appetites.

Thanks for trying to help.

If more than one fish is involved, then water quality is suspected...

That type of situation does not warrant, nor is it, a water quality problem.

The stress of moving an old fish combined with a definite eye injury/disease, was just too much for the fish to handle.

--garyroland.