Clownfish with bulging eye? Help.

[CalebWBrink2000]

As the title states, my young male occellaris' right eye is massively bulged. Last night everything was completely fine; this morning, not so much.

His environment: 14gal reef as per my build thread below. Tankmates include a large female Wyoming White occellaris, and a green chromis. The Wyoming White is very aggressive to me, but never to her younger companion. He and the chromis occasionally spat, but nothing severe and there is never physical contact.

There are three anemones in the system: one maxi-mini, and two BTAs. The female clown hosts the BTA; the younger male never touches them. I've had both the chromis and young male clown for roughly two months with no issues; I've had the female clown for two years.

I feed my tank twice a day with LRS Reef Frenzy Nano; I fed this morning to see if he would eat. His appetite is suppressed, as he was much less aggressive and more selective in feeding. However, he did eat small morsels. Again, this all happened overnight.

Any suggestions as to what this is and how I can fix it? I'm a college student and this reef is in my dorm, so a quarantine tank is an absolute last-resort that I would really rather not take.

The pictures below were taken shortly after the lights turned on:

 

[Crabs McJones]

If only one eye is swollen its likely an injury. If both become swollen and cloudy its likely a bacterial infection. However it wouldn't hurt to treat for infection as a just-in-case

Humblefish's recommendation for bacterial infection is as follows;
How to treat a bacterial infection: First off, there are many things you can do to prevent a bacterial infection from happening in the first place. Some of these include:

• Maintaining a proper environment (i.e. clean water) for your fish to live in.
• Separating two quarrelling fish before cuts/wounds get too serious.
• Utilizing proper nutrition (i.e. nori, foods high in protein), and soaking fish food with vitamin supplements (examples: Selcon, Zoecon, Vita-chem; or even Omega-3 fish oil - props to Paul B for the fish oil recommendation). These will help boost your fish’s natural immune system.
• Utilizing a fish QT - to prevent parasites and other nasties (including harmful gram negative bacteria) from being introduced into your DT. This will alleviate the possibility of a "secondary" bacterial infection popping up while the fish's immune system is already compromised from battling parasites.
• Running a UV sterilizer may help in certain situations, as that will lower the overall number of harmful bacteria found in the water column.

When to medicate: Sometimes all the vitamins, proper nutrition and clean water are just not enough. Sometimes a fish's natural immune system needs a helping hand (like our own). When to QT and pull the trigger on using antibiotics is not an easy decision; it's a judgment call.

As a general rule, I only pull & treat if: (a) The fish looks really bad or (b) It is a newly acquired fish showing signs of infection. The latter is an easy call for me as I QT all new fish anyway. Below is a list of antibiotic medications you can use. It is not a comprehensive list by any means, but just some readily available options. Whatever medication you go with, be sure it contains broad spectrum or wide spectrum antibiotics capable of treating both gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial diseases.

• Kanamycin (ex. Seachem Kanaplex)
• Nitrofurazone (ex. Furan-2)
• Nitrofuracin Green Powder (Great for treating “red sores” commonly seen on butterflyfish and some angelfish. It is also useful for healing wounds and treating ammonia burn.)
• Triple Sulfa Powder (Good broad spectrum antibacterial medication; but IME can be harsh on certain fish.)
  
• Erythromycin & Minocycline combination (ex. Maracyn 1 & 2). If you are confident it is just a gram positive infection, then API E.M. Erythromycin is a good choice.
• For really bad infections, I advocate combining metronidazole (ex. Seachem MetroPlex), Furan-2 and Kanaplex to achieve a very broad spectrum of treatment. Props to “hedgedrew” for enlightening me of this.

More info about specific antibiotics: http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumMedication2.html

Although it is not optimal to do so, you can combine antibiotics with copper treatment or Chloroquine phosphate. Since I do not use hyposalinity to treat Ich, I have no experience using antibiotics in hypo conditions. I do not recommend mixing Prazipro with antibiotics, or any other medication for that matter. It is important to remember that every medication you use depletes the water of oxygen. Combining meds just exacerbates this. Therefore, it is absolutely imperative to provide additional gas exchange when treating.

DO NOT overdose antibiotics; if in doubt, always underdose. Antibiotics can be harsh on and even kill certain fish; although appetite suppression is much more common. Some advocate just applying antibiotic ointment to the affected area(s) topically, but I have zero experience doing that with fish. Antibiotics will kill some of the nitrifying bacteria in your bio-filter, but rarely wipes them all out to the point where you see an ammonia spike. However, for this reason and the negative impact antibiotics can have on corals/inverts, I strongly discourage their use in a DT.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Popeye. Bacterial infection. Chances are from injury.

Sometimes it will improve on it's own with a good nutrition. Quality frozen food soaked in selcon.

Or quarantine and treat accordingly:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-diseases-101.189284/

I would quarantine.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

Neither of his eyes are cloudy.

For now, I will ride it out and make sure he is well fed; his behavior is mostly normal and aside from his eye, he looks fine. He's is (or was) a very healthy fish; if his condition worsens then I will set up a temporary QT for him and use antibiotics.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Neither of his eyes are cloudy.

For now, I will ride it out and make sure he is well fed; his behavior is mostly normal and aside from his eye, he looks fine. He's is (or was) a very healthy fish; if his condition worsens then I will set up a temporary QT for him and use antibiotics.

Thanks for the help.

The use of Epson salt can help as well:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/popeye.305090/

Good luck! Hope it pulls through!

 

[DFR]

I would agree with the previous posts. This is caused by bacterial infection, an injury, or an injury that became infected. Most likely this case is due to injury as it is only on 1 eye and this is not displayed on any other fish in the system. What I would do is maintain high quality water over the next week or so to reduce the chance of it possibly spreading or getting worst. Just do ~3 gallon water changes daily (or every other day) for the next week. Otherwise, you have the right idea, keep him well fed and monitor condition.
You can treat also with an antibiotic, but I am against use of medications and chemicals unless it is absolutely necessary.

 

[DFR]

The use of Epson salt can help as well:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/popeye.305090/

Good luck! Hope it pulls through!

Nice idea, you learn something new everyday!!! I’ve heard of using it for freshwater fish but never thought to make the transition to saltwater.

 

[HOOPDEEZ]

I was able to treat my pintail wrasse’s injures eye with epsom salt. It was bulging quite a bit, but not cloudy. As long as the epsom salt doesn’t have any fragrances or other additives, it is reef safe.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

Sweet. I'll try that out.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Sweet. I'll try that out.

Your welcome!

 

[Crabs McJones]

Sweet. I'll try that out.

Keep us posted

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

So, my tank is 14 gallons, but I presume it's around 10 gallons of actual water volume due to the displacement of equipment and rocks. So, per Humblefish's dosage, I'd dose 2 tablespoons. Do I need to dissolve the crystals in a cup of tank water first? Or just put them straight into the back filter chambers? I definitely don't wanna dump the salts straight into the display where the corals are.

 

[Flippers4pups]

So, my tank is 14 gallons, but I presume it's around 10 gallons of actual water volume due to the displacement of equipment and rocks. So, per Humblefish's dosage, I'd dose 2 tablespoons. Do I need to dissolve the crystals in a cup of tank water first? Or just put them straight into the back filter chambers? I definitely don't wanna dump the salts straight into the display where the corals are.

You can dissolve it in a cup of tank water and then dose it slowly.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

So, the epsom salt was dosed yesterday afternoon. As of now, I see no difference with his eye. However, he's still acting normal and is eating vigorously. How long does it take to notice a reduction in swelling?

 

[Flippers4pups]

So, the epsom salt was dosed yesterday afternoon. As of now, I see no difference with his eye. However, he's still acting normal and is eating vigorously. How long does it take to notice a reduction in swelling?

It may take a week or so.

 

[Katrina71]

Mine very recently had the same issue. Kept healthy water parameters and he seems to have recovered 100%. Each day I saw a little progress. Took about a week to go away.

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

As of now, his eye is still massive. I can't really tell a difference; it might actually be slightly larger. However, his health is still fine. Behavior is normal and his appetite is vigorous. If his eye were normal you wouldn't think anything were wrong.

 

[DFR]

If his health is still fine, still eating well, and eye doesn’t seem to be getting worst, just give him time. Again, just keep the water quality high and keep feeding. Good luck!

 

[CalebWBrink2000]

I'm happy to report that his eye has returned to its normal size.

I can't say that the epsom salt helped anything, but it definitely didn't hurt. His eye increased in size up until Thursday, and then gradually shrunk up until today. Thanks for the help guys.

 

[Cbones1979]

Just noticed the same thing with my saddleback clown today. Right eye slightly bulged, left eye normal.