Solar Wrasse Popeye?

Joe.D · 2026-11-11T18:40:17-0500

I have a Solar Wrasse that’s about 4 years old in a 75g display. It’s a mixed reef with a Whitetail Bristletooth Tang, a Mandarin, a Banggai and 2 Clowns.

Went on vacation for a couple of weeks, had my LFS come in and do a water change while I was gone, someone feed the tank while I was away as well.

Since we’ve been back now, about 2 weeks - he was skittish the first week, not like him. He’s pretty curious and always out and about. For the past week, he’s been hiding in the rocks - I can see him through an opening in the rock and target feed frozen to him. He appears to be eating. Today he was at such and angle that I could see that the eye that was away from me, is popped out.

I can’t get a photo of him where he’s at.

Parameters are pretty good: PO4 .09, NO3 15.4. These were pre water change that I did last night.

Attached are the others from the Trident.

Any thoughts? Treatments?

Decamicron Labs · 2026-11-11T19:04:25-0500

Can't really do much without a photo

saltwaterfish.com · 2026-11-11T20:00:56-0500

Could be a possible bacterial infection due to stress, or an injury to his eye. If possible try and get a photo or video under white light posted.

vetteguy53081 · 2026-11-11T21:44:14-0500

Joe.D said:
I have a Solar Wrasse that’s about 4 years old in a 75g display. It’s a mixed reef with a Whitetail Bristletooth Tang, a Mandarin, a Banggai and 2 Clowns.

Went on vacation for a couple of weeks, had my LFS come in and do a water change while I was gone, someone feed the tank while I was away as well.

Since we’ve been back now, about 2 weeks - he was skittish the first week, not like him. He’s pretty curious and always out and about. For the past week, he’s been hiding in the rocks - I can see him through an opening in the rock and target feed frozen to him. He appears to be eating. Today he was at such and angle that I could see that the eye that was away from me, is popped out.

I can’t get a photo of him where he’s at.

Parameters are pretty good: PO4 .09, NO3 15.4. These were pre water change that I did last night.

Attached are the others from the Trident.

Any thoughts? Treatments?

Please post a pic or two using bright white light intensity. If it only on one eye, may signify an eye injury

Joe.D · 2026-11-11T23:33:37-0500

Here’s a couple, not great, but best I can do right now. He’s right in the middle in the opening of the rocks between the mushroom and Zoa. At this point, from what I can see, the left eye is ok. If I can get a better pic, I’ll post.

christinna77 · 2026-11-12T01:23:29-0500

If it's just a single popeye, hiding from light is fairly normal. I noticed my tilefish was very light sensitive when he had it. You can try turning the lights off and see if he comes out. Mine would only be active before the lights came on and after they went off, never during the day.

In my case I just kept an eye on him for any signs of infection, spot fed him and he gradually improved over the course of a week, and started coming out again during lights on too.

Jay Hemdal · 2026-11-12T08:30:17-0500

Joe.D said:
Here’s a couple, not great, but best I can do right now. He’s right in the middle in the opening of the rocks between the mushroom and Zoa. At this point, from what I can see, the left eye is ok. If I can get a better pic, I’ll post.

A single protruding eye is always caused by an injury, usually self-inflicted by it hitting a rock. I don’t see any sign of infection (waiting on a better pic). These are slow to heal and sometimes, don’t go completely away.

One question would be; if the skittishness of the fish came first, causing the fish to flee and hit a rock, or did it come after the eye injury, and it’s acting like this because its vision is impaired.

Joe.D · 2026-11-12T12:23:16-0500

I think the skittishness came first. He was out and about last week - just skittish and I didn’t notice the popeye then. Yesterday was the first I noticed the popeye. He tries to turn around in that little cave, could very easily have scraped his eye then. He did come out after lights out last night then hid when I came to the tank.

I got a good look at the eye, it’s not cloudy, just popped. Here’s a couple of more pics.

Jay Hemdal · 2026-11-12T13:07:01-0500

Joe.D said:
I think the skittishness came first. He was out and about last week - just skittish and I didn’t notice the popeye then. Yesterday was the first I noticed the popeye. He tries to turn around in that little cave, could very easily have scraped his eye then. He did come out after lights out last night then hid when I came to the tank.

I got a good look at the eye, it’s not cloudy, just popped. Here’s a couple of more pics.

For some reason, a physical strike to a fish’s eye can cause bubbles of gas to exit the capillaries behind the eye and become trapped there - that causes the eye to protrude, often with no cloudiness. You can sometimes see the actual bubbles in severe cases.