Blue line Angel Popeye

[spartanman22]

Looks like my Blueline angel has popeye. He was looking fine earlier today, but when I checked on him later in the afternoon noticed his right eye is swollen. Hasn’t impacted behavior or eating.

He does appear to have ich. I’ve had him for about a week, and he’s been in copper at varying concentrations. Was bringing him up slowly. As of earlier today I’m at 2.25 mg/L (coppersafe).

I have noticed some head twitching so I’m curious if flukes were the culprit of the popeye? How best should I go about treating him? Just monitor and maintain water quality while running through copper? Run a prazi cycle now or wait until coppers finished? As far as antibacterial I do have cipro on hand.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks like my Blueline angel has popeye. He was looking fine earlier today, but when I checked on him later in the afternoon noticed his right eye is swollen. Hasn’t impacted behavior or eating.

He does appear to have ich. I’ve had him for about a week, and he’s been in copper at varying concentrations. Was bringing him up slowly. As of earlier today I’m at 2.25 mg/L (coppersafe).

I have noticed some head twitching so I’m curious if flukes were the culprit of the popeye? How best should I go about treating him? Just monitor and maintain water quality while running through copper? Run a prazi cycle now or wait until coppers finished? As far as antibacterial I do have cipro on hand.

This may be gas bubbles /gas bubble embolism which should release on its own. In the event is gets worse, obtain Maracyn as pictured below in case treatment is needed.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Looks like my Blueline angel has popeye. He was looking fine earlier today, but when I checked on him later in the afternoon noticed his right eye is swollen. Hasn’t impacted behavior or eating.

He does appear to have ich. I’ve had him for about a week, and he’s been in copper at varying concentrations. Was bringing him up slowly. As of earlier today I’m at 2.25 mg/L (coppersafe).

I have noticed some head twitching so I’m curious if flukes were the culprit of the popeye? How best should I go about treating him? Just monitor and maintain water quality while running through copper? Run a prazi cycle now or wait until coppers finished? As far as antibacterial I do have cipro on hand.

Do you know the history of this fish? It looks too large to be captive raised, but smaller wild caught ones are pretty rare. Has its color always been this yellow/pale?

The general diagnostic is if both eyes are cloudy, it is often flukes. Popeye in just one eye is usually an injury. Many times, these do not require antibiotics, but they do take time to heal (a month or so). And, during that time, if it injures it’s other eye, it may stop feeding, which is really bad.

Running copper and prazi together can be done, but it is stressful. If the angel is scratching or breathing fast, you might need to do that.

Here is an update on an article I wrote 20 years ago about this species:

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/bluelined-bluestripe-angelfish.1002/

 

[spartanman22]

Ya I’d like to avoid doing copper and prazi together if I don’t need too.

This fish was bought from NY Aquatic as a wild caught juvenile. He came with a beat up tail but otherwise has seemed very healthy. What looks like ich popped up in the last couple days, but he’s continuing to eat frozen and pellets really well. He showed up nice a fat for being a small juvenile.

 

[spartanman22]

Do you know the history of this fish? It looks too large to be captive raised, but smaller wild caught ones are pretty rare. Has its color always been this yellow/pale?

The general diagnostic is if both eyes are cloudy, it is often flukes. Popeye in just one eye is usually an injury. Many times, these do not require antibiotics, but they do take time to heal (a month or so). And, during that time, if it injures it’s other eye, it may stop feeding, which is really bad.

Running copper and prazi together can be done, but it is stressful. If the angel is scratching or breathing fast, you might need to do that.

Here is an update on an article I wrote 20 years ago about this species:

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/bluelined-bluestripe-angelfish.1002/

His color has always been this yellow and pale. So much so that you can see the reddish hues of his gills through his cheeks. At first I thought it was uronema or something else but it’s visible on both sides, and he’s been very healthy and happy since getting him. I also don’t have any lights over the QT just ambient light so maybe that’s contributing to the paler color. My bristletooth was incredibly pale when he went through QT in this tank, but he’s colored up immediately in the display.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

His color has always been this yellow and pale. So much so that you can see the reddish hues of his gills through his cheeks. At first I thought it was uronema or something else but it’s visible on both sides, and he’s been very healthy and happy since getting him. I also don’t have any lights over the QT just ambient light so maybe that’s contributing to the paler color. My bristletooth was incredibly pale when he went through QT in this tank, but he’s colored up immediately in the display.

The red gill coloration could be inflammation from some disease, but it could also just be the red gills showing through the pale gill covers. Try to measure the fish's respiration rate. Count the gill beats in 15 seconds, do that a few times and take the average. then, multiply that average by 4 to get the number of gill beats per minute. For that fish, the respiration count should be less than 100 per minute, and 80 would be even better.

 

[spartanman22]

His respiration never was accelerated. Over the last week his eye improved quite a bit, but unfortunately I found him dead today. Not sure from what he was eating like a pig, otherwise seemingly healthy minus the eye. Possible the red was some gill irritation cause by something not treatable by copper? Or possibly copper sensitivity? Maybe about halfway through at 2.5 ppm (15 ish days) and looked really good minus the one eye.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

His respiration never was accelerated. Over the last week his eye improved quite a bit, but unfortunately I found him dead today. Not sure from what he was eating like a pig, otherwise seemingly healthy minus the eye. Possible the red was some gill irritation cause by something not treatable by copper? Or possibly copper sensitivity? Maybe about halfway through at 2.5 ppm (15 ish days) and looked really good minus the one eye.

Sorry to hear.

Do you happen to know the country of origin? The eating well and then dying out of the blue (but within 6 weeks of arrival) is the hallmark of cyanide poisoning, used to collect fish in some regions.

There are also some nematodes that can take angelfish out - the fish seem to be doing well, but then a nematode migrates into a nearby organ and the fish just drops.

Amine-chelated copper is well tolerated, and even with ionic copper, the side effects are seen upfront, not midway through a treatment.

 

[spartanman22]

It’s possible I just figured if it was a worm/fluke issue I would have seen some of the other symptoms. Generally I finish copper then run prazi. So without any symptoms I didn’t treat for any flukes/worms.

I’m not sure point of origin but it did come from NY Aquatics. I’ve tended to have better luck with them, but no one is perfect.