Bluethroat trigger eye injury

[sky414]

Take a peek at the attached video. I don’t think this is Popeye because the eye is clear, but the metallic looking part is getting bigger on her right eye. I feel like it’s eye injury because she wedges herself in between some tight rocks. But I don’t want to wait until she is showing other symptoms.

She is super shy. I only see her when I am across the room and it’s dark. She went through a prophylactic 37 day quarantine (usually I only quarantine for 21 days) where she had prazi, copper, then prazi again, mainly because I never saw her. I never saw her eat or out of the pvc pipe unless I moved it. Most fish come out within a couple of weeks, but she’s been consistent the entire 6 months that I’ve had her. To date, I still have never seen her eat. Thoughts?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Take a peek at the attached video. I don’t think this is Popeye because the eye is clear, but the metallic looking part is getting bigger on her right eye. I feel like it’s eye injury because she wedges herself in between some tight rocks. But I don’t want to wait until she is showing other symptoms.

She is super shy. I only see her when I am across the room and it’s dark. She went through a prophylactic 37 day quarantine (usually I only quarantine for 21 days) where she had prazi, copper, then prazi again, mainly because I never saw her. I never saw her eat or out of the pvc pipe unless I moved it. Most fish come out within a couple of weeks, but she’s been consistent the entire 6 months that I’ve had her. To date, I still have never seen her eat. Thoughts?

Being one eye and from its appearance is due to an injury and will require treatment using maracyn in a separate tank....... not Maracyn oxy, or Maracyn two

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Tough to see in the blue light and the one photo is out of focus, but it does look like an eye injury. I agree, Maracyn (erythromycin) is a good treatment. Many times, these will heal on their own, but either way, it can take months.
It wasn’t clear to me - is the fish eating ok now?

 

[dowdalld]

I guess this must be relatively common in Bluethroat triggers.
On the injury, a picture of mine below, it happened when he was spooked, which he often is. He went into hiding for 3 weeks during which I rarely saw him out or eating. Then he slowly re-emerged. As the eye didnt look "infected" I hoped it would improve over time. These pictures are about 3 weeks old and it has reduced in size since then but still not the same as his good eye. It would have been impossible to get him out of the tank without stressing or injuring him further.

On general behaviour and hiding. Mine was ridiculously nervous when I got him and every movement outside the tank would have him hiding for hours including at feeding time.
I started pushing a fresh mussel into his hiding place and slowly moved it farther away until he started coming out. That progressed to where I would handfeed him frozen mysis or shrimp at feeding times. He became far less skittish and completely ignored me or my hand in the tank, was the first fish out in the morning and last at night. All this was reversed after his injury but I've put in the work and we are back to hand feeding again.
My favourite fish and worth the effort.