Fish Loosing vision/eye?

[JAMreef]

I have two Lyre Tail Anthias (originally bought a trio) that I’ve had now for about two months. They do squabble a little bit but nothing that I have found to be concerning. Well, until now I recently noticed the larger ‘female’ has a huge shall we call in a bubble over her right eye. I assume this is possibly from fighting but I’m not sure. There is no other (aggressive) fish in the tank right now other than a starry blenny, green clown goby, And an engineer goby.

I guess my question is based on the video and photo I’ve posted do you believe she is going to loose her eye, or is she blind in it at this point? Is there anything I can do for her?

 

[Fishurama]

It could be a bacterial infection from it getting a cut from fighting. Ive had freshwater fish get popeye and this looks nothing like it. Id also rule out flukes since you had them for awhile. If it does go blind, as long as it's still getting food and eating it should be fine(which it looks like it is from the video). If you have a QT you could make it into a hospital tank and try treating from there. But that could also lead to aggression again when reintroducing. So that becomes a judgement call.
Great source for antibiotic info.
source

 

[JAMreef]

Thank you for that link...

Wow, just looked up ‘popeye’ and like you said it doesn’t appear to be that. I literally just set up a quarantine tank today, but also don’t want to risk the fighting upon reintroducing. I guess I will see if it gets any worse or if it stops eating. For now it is doing wellother than its eye.

Thank you for responding

 

[vetteguy53081]

Its currently infected. I know these guys are hard to catch, but give it an epsom salt bath and then freshwater dip. Will do wonders with healing and assure you are keeping up with tank water quality. Melafix also good for issues with fish's eyes.

 

[JAMreef]

Okay I will do that! I’m sorry I don’t know much about how to fresh water dip a fish. Is there a link you could give me that would let me know exactly what I need to do to accomplish this, or just simply googling it will tell me what I need to know?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Okay I will do that! I’m sorry I don’t know much about how to fresh water dip a fish. Is there a link you could give me that would let me know exactly what I need to do to accomplish this, or just simply googling it will tell me what I need to know?

Sorry, I couldn't get the video to run on my computer. The other eye is completely normal? The affected eye looks really cloudy to me (and as stated, that can be a sign of infection) but in your description, you mentioned a huge bubble. Those bubbles, in the absence of opaque cloudiness are a sign of injury that may not be infected.

I wouldn't give this fish a FW dip unless both eyes are affected (that can be a sign of flukes). The reasoning is that one common way anthias get these eye problems is from mechanical trauma, commonly, when catching them up in a net.

Jay

 

[JAMreef]

Sorry, I couldn't get the video to run on my computer. The other eye is completely normal? The affected eye looks really cloudy to me (and as stated, that can be a sign of infection) but in your description, you mentioned a huge bubble. Those bubbles, in the absence of opaque cloudiness are a sign of injury that may not be infected.

I wouldn't give this fish a FW dip unless both eyes are affected (that can be a sign of flukes). The reasoning is that one common way anthias get these eye problems is from mechanical trauma, commonly, when catching them up in a net.

Jay

Left eye is completely fine, right eye has a cloudy bubble over it. I should have been more descriptive.