Anthias with wounded eye

[DLHDesign]

Found out a moment ago why one of the three anthias we have in the tank is rarely seen:

You can (kind of) see that it's right eye is pretty messed up. It's buried deep in this rock structure, so I've not really gotten a good look at the wound yet. Based on how long this one has been "missing", I'd guess that the wound is at least a few weeks old.

So; questions:
1) I'm assuming this is some kind of wound that will only affect this one fish. I know there's not a lot to go on, but could it be anything else?
2) Given that the fish is still eating (feed time is the only time I see three anthias in the tank), what do you think is the best course of action?
3) If the suggestion is to remove it from the tank, are there any methods/devices that work to catch fish like this? I can tear down the rock structure it's hiding in, but not the entire tank. So more than likely while I'm tearing down the one it's in now, it would just move to the next one over (which also has lots of hiding places I can't see/reach).

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[DLHDesign]

Not sure if this is required in this forum or not, but just in case: #reefsquad, please. ;-)

 

[dbl]

I found the thread below by searching pop eye, which is what it looks like to me. BUT, I'm not a fish disease expert. Let's see if we can grab the attention of @Humblefish or @melypr1985 on this one to confirm or correct me.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/pop-eye-in-anthia-in-12-hrs.236104/#post-2776763

 

[Humblefish]

Looks like he's damaged his eye to me. I would first try dosing Epsom salt (1 tablespoon per 5 gallons) to see if that helps the swelling go down.

 

[melypr1985]

It's only one eye so it's an injury that has swollen up. If it's not cloudy then it probably hasn't gotten infected yet. You'll want to add vitamins to his food (something like Vitachem or Selcon) and add some epsom salt to the tank to help reduce the swelling.

Edit: Jinx Humblefish you owe me a coke!! lol Great minds and all that jaz....

 

[Syntax1235]

I recently had a lyretail anthias (male) die from an eye injury. He kept damaging the eye and it never healed. Over a period of three months he weakened because he couldn't get food efficiently. Eventually a female transitioned and killed the weakened male. The whole situation was awful to watch. I tried catching the male unsuccessfully and hoped it would heal on its own, didn't happen.

 

[Zero Nitrates]

I have a yellow Tang that lost an eye because of the same thing. Took him a couple of months to recover. He is healthy now and act normal. We call him yellow beard.

 

[DLHDesign]

I would first try dosing Epsom salt (1 tablespoon per 5 gallons) to see if that helps the swelling go down.

You'll want to add vitamins to his food (something like Vitachem or Selcon) and add some epsom salt to the tank to help reduce the swelling.

I'm assuming that I don't want to dose Epsom salt into my DT. Any suggestions on an effective way to catch an otherwise healthy fish short of tearing the entire tank apart? Any good (eg; non-damaging, effective) fish-traps out there?

I've actually had the entire tank on Vitachem for a few weeks now. When I have fishes in QT, I defrost one batch (two cubes) or frozen food in DT water and Vitachem (4-5 drops). The resulting food/water is added into the DT first (about 80%) and the QT gets the remainder. So pretty much the entire time that the injury has been there, it's been getting Vitachem-soaked food. Yay for small serendipities.

Thanks - as always - @Humblefish and @melypr1985; you guys are awesome. And thank you to everyone else as well - the responsiveness is reason enough to keep me calm through the trying times of this hobby.

 

[melypr1985]

I'm assuming that I don't want to dose Epsom salt into my DT

Actually, that's exactly what you should do.

Epsom Salt: Treats eye and other injuries. Popeye in one eye usually means injury, but popeye in both eyes usually denotes a bacterial infection requiring antibiotic treatment. Cloudy eye can be a bacterial infection or flukes.

How To Treat - 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of aquarium water. Repeat only once, if necessary. Use only “USP” grade Epsom salt.

Pros - Reef safe, as Epsom salt is just magnesium sulfate.

Cons/Side Effects - The effects of excessive sulfate in a reef aquarium are not fully known

 

[DLHDesign]

Woa, woa, woa - you mean this is relatively EASY?!? Awesome. My mag has been low lately anyways... ;-)

What should I be looking for? And/or looking out for? What duration should I have between two doses (if such is even required)?

I can confirm that the other eye is not cloudy. But that's about it; this fish dives into cover any time I get close to the tank, so I have to observe the tank from ~10ft away... Still; at least it's up and about in the water column with the other two from time to time (mostly at night, of course).

 

[melypr1985]

Woa, woa, woa - you mean this is relatively EASY?!? Awesome. My mag has been low lately anyways... ;-)

What should I be looking for? And/or looking out for? What duration should I have between two doses (if such is even required)?

I can confirm that the other eye is not cloudy. But that's about it; this fish dives into cover any time I get close to the tank, so I have to observe the tank from ~10ft away... Still; at least it's up and about in the water column with the other two from time to time (mostly at night, of course).

Humble will have to tell you how often to do it. I've only done it once and didn't need to do it more after that.

You'll want to look for the other eye getting bigger, cloudy or it spreading to the other eye. If the good eye starts going cloudy, then the infection has spread to it and you'll need to get him into QT asap for a kanaplex treatment.

 

[DLHDesign]

You'll want to look for the other eye getting bigger, cloudy or it spreading to the other eye. If the good eye starts going cloudy, then the infection has spread to it and you'll need to get him into QT asap for a kanaplex treatment.

Awesome. I have kanaplex on-hand and can spin up a new QT easy enough (I'll mix the saltwater now just in case). Headed to the store to pick up some USP Epsom Salt (Safeway seems to have it) to at least get one dose in there.

Should I shut off GFO/Carbon? And/or shut down the skimmer?

(Sorry about all the questions; I've learned that what I don't know is what makes things worse, and I can't know without asking, so you end up being pestered about every detail. I've got enough info to act on; thank you.)

 

[melypr1985]

Awesome. I have kanaplex on-hand and can spin up a new QT easy enough (I'll mix the saltwater now just in case). Headed to the store to pick up some USP Epsom Salt (Safeway seems to have it) to at least get one dose in there.

Should I shut off GFO/Carbon? And/or shut down the skimmer?

(Sorry about all the questions; I've learned that what I don't know is what makes things worse, and I can't know without asking, so you end up being pestered about every detail. I've got enough info to act on; thank you.)

I don't think you need to shut anything off for this. Oh and I noticed that the instructions I copied for you say to only repeat once ( i really should read those things more often lol) Though I don't know how close together to do them.
I do know that you can dissolve the salt in RODI water to dose.

And questions are what makes R2R go round! Keep them comin

 

[DLHDesign]

So, for a ~130gal system, I dosed in 1.625 cups (1 cup + 10tbsp) of Epsons salt. Sounds like a lot, but I know that "regular" Mg requires a fairly heavy hand as well, so this medication-level seemed reasonable.
I measured my Mg before the medication dose and it came out to 1360ppm - a bit higher than normal due to my Mg dosing pump having just gone off. After adding in the meds, Mg reads at 1400ppm.

After the night, the fish seems to be doing a little better. It's out swimming a bit more, which enabled me to get a better look at it's eye. Still bubbly, but may have reduced a little? Other eye seems normal and clear. I couldn't see any sign of a wound beyond the eye, but it keeps its good eye on me, so hard to get a good look. Interestingly, the fish seems less skittish around my wife, so I may have her do the observations going forward.

 

[melypr1985]

Yeah, give it a little time for the swelling to go down. Hopefully it stays infection free and he can heal himself.

 

[Humblefish]

^^ Agree with Meredith; if the Epsom salt isn't helping after the second round, its time to look into some other treatment options.

 

[DLHDesign]

Still only a single dose in, but the swelling looks to have gone down about 50%. Keeping an eye on it. (See what I did there?)

 

[Humblefish]

Still only a single dose in, but the swelling looks to have gone down about 50%. Keeping an eye on it. (See what I did there?)

 

[dbl]

Still only a single dose in, but the swelling looks to have gone down about 50%. Keeping an eye on it. (See what I did there?)

Great news...Glad it appears to be working.

 

[DLHDesign]

Seems to have worked with a single dosing. Miss Wounded Eye was swimming up and about for most of the day. It's hard to be sure, but I don't think that the right eye is any more puffy or bloated than the left - or than that of the other two.

So looks like we saved a fish, everyone. Congrats to us all!