Royal Gramma - Eye Disease

[Gaboxing]

Hello everyone,

So I've been dealing with this issue with my Royal Gramma for a few months now. I think it was around November of last year after doing a water change, that I noticed the next day my Royal Gramma has Popeye, I don't know if it was due to him hiding during the water change and maybe injuring his eye in the process.

It wasn't getting better on its own, so I tried E.M. Erythromycin. After completing 2 treatment cycles and seeing that it was not getting better, I tried giving him medicated food with Kannaplex on it. I also used Prazipro in case it was flukes in the eyes or something, and doing more regular water changes.

Something must've worked because his eye did went down in sizze significantlly, and I throught just feeding him vitamin enriched food would do the trick. It was two months of it looking like it was getting better, just a couple of white puffy dots in the eyes, but today I woke up to him looking like the picture attached, worse than ever with still the same isisue as before.

As you can see from the picture, the eye if bloated and he has a few white spots on the eye. These white spots are large puffy, and almost look like it is from the surface of the eye peeling off.

He has been eating well this whole time, he does go into hiding more than he used to.

For reference, my aquarium is 40 gallons, and inside is a true percula clown, a springer's damsel, and this Royal Gramma. The damsel is a bit territorial but has never shown agressive behavior. My parameters are all ok, it is FOWLR with only 3 fish so water quality is never an issue.

I don't know if there is any more information I need to provide, but please advise. I feel like I have not been able to hit the nail on the head in regards to what is wrong with him, maybe using Kannaplex only orally was a mistake and I should have dosed? Maybe Metroplex?

Also, none of the other fish have had any symptons at all during these months that the gramma has had this issue. Please advise, thank you very much.

 

[fishguy242]

Does sound like another injury,but lets call in the experts...
#fishmedic

 

[sc50964]

How did you do the prazi? In the DT or QT?

is it with one eye or both?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

If it is just the right eye, I would say this is just a repeat injury. It doesn’t look severely infected to me.
Metroplex won’t help with this. Oral antibiotics must be avoided unless you calculate the dose properly (very difficult, but we have tools in the fish disease section to help with that).

Most eye injury issues get better or not on their own, despite any treatment. Erythromycin seems to be the best option if the eye becomes infected.

Jay

 

[Gaboxing]

How did you do the prazi? In the DT or QT?

is it with one eye or both?

I did it in the DT and it is just one eye, the other eye has not had any issues at all this entire time.

 

[sc50964]

If it is just the right eye, I would say this is just a repeat injury. It doesn’t look severely infected to me.
Metroplex won’t help with this. Oral antibiotics must be avoided unless you calculate the dose properly (very difficult, but we have tools in the fish disease section to help with that).

Most eye injury issues get better or not on their own, despite any treatment. Erythromycin seems to be the best option if the eye becomes infected.

Jay

How fast does erythromycin break down & become useless in a DT?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

How fast does erythromycin break down & become useless in a DT?

IDK - most antibiotics are broken down in 36 to 72 hours. Overdosing of erythromycin can impair the biological filtration, so always monitor ammonia when dosing it.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello everyone,

So I've been dealing with this issue with my Royal Gramma for a few months now. I think it was around November of last year after doing a water change, that I noticed the next day my Royal Gramma has Popeye, I don't know if it was due to him hiding during the water change and maybe injuring his eye in the process.

It wasn't getting better on its own, so I tried E.M. Erythromycin. After completing 2 treatment cycles and seeing that it was not getting better, I tried giving him medicated food with Kannaplex on it. I also used Prazipro in case it was flukes in the eyes or something, and doing more regular water changes.

Something must've worked because his eye did went down in sizze significantlly, and I throught just feeding him vitamin enriched food would do the trick. It was two months of it looking like it was getting better, just a couple of white puffy dots in the eyes, but today I woke up to him looking like the picture attached, worse than ever with still the same isisue as before.

As you can see from the picture, the eye if bloated and he has a few white spots on the eye. These white spots are large puffy, and almost look like it is from the surface of the eye peeling off.

He has been eating well this whole time, he does go into hiding more than he used to.

For reference, my aquarium is 40 gallons, and inside is a true percula clown, a springer's damsel, and this Royal Gramma. The damsel is a bit territorial but has never shown agressive behavior. My parameters are all ok, it is FOWLR with only 3 fish so water quality is never an issue.

I don't know if there is any more information I need to provide, but please advise. I feel like I have not been able to hit the nail on the head in regards to what is wrong with him, maybe using Kannaplex only orally was a mistake and I should have dosed? Maybe Metroplex?

Also, none of the other fish have had any symptons at all during these months that the gramma has had this issue. Please advise, thank you very much.

Too many meds in a short span of time and easier to wait and pinpoint the cause than to drop several meds. Prazi is best for worms and kanaplex for bacterial. The E.M. Erythromycin you did was the best recourse and for at least 5 days and will take a couple days to make it work and allowing it to work.
Other option is Maracyn AKA maracyn 1 im quarantine.

 

[Gaboxing]

Too many meds in a short span of time and easier to wait and pinpoint the cause than to drop several meds. Prazi is best for worms and kanaplex for bacterial. The E.M. Erythromycin you did was the best recourse and for at least 5 days and will take a couple days to make it work and allowing it to work.
Other option is Maracyn AKA maracyn 1 im quarantine.

Thank you, yeah I kind of freak out and didn't want to regret taking action as soon as I could, which in turn made me take too much action.

Does it make a difference to medicate in quarantine as opposed to on the DT? I do have a quarantine tank, but the Gramma is very difficult to catch for me.

Thank you,

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you, yeah I kind of freak out and didn't want to regret taking action as soon as I could, which in turn made me take too much action.

Does it make a difference to medicate in quarantine as opposed to on the DT? I do have a quarantine tank, but the Gramma is very difficult to catch for me.

Thank you,

Yes, it makes a difference and will treat fish for conditions they do not have not to mention the impact some medications have on both chemical and biological cultures within system and also some medications are NOT safe for inverts and corals.
Ruby Rally is often an exception but mainly in mild cases. This forum is open 24/7 - Always ask if not sure- You will get a response. Eye is very treatable, just let the medication do its thing

 

[Gaboxing]

Yes, it makes a difference and will treat fish for conditions they do not have not to mention the impact some medications have on both chemical and biological cultures within system and also some medications are NOT safe for inverts and corals.
Ruby Rally is often an exception but mainly in mild cases. This forum is open 24/7 - Always ask if not sure- You will get a response. Eye is very treatable, just let the medication do its thing

Thank you very much, and thank you everyone for your advise. I'll set up my quarantine tank and try another round of erythromycin.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thank you very much, and thank you everyone for your advise. I'll set up my quarantine tank and try another round of erythromycin.

Ive seen it heal eye issue 98% of the time- You got this !!

 

[Gaboxing]

Ive seen it heal eye issue 98% of the time- You got this !!

Hi, sorry I never followed up on this, but I thought you would want to know my Royal Gramma is doing fantastic now!

I put him in quarantine and did another round of erythromycin which helped but didn’t completely cure him after 20 days of treatment.

After that I did some more research and learned that some people had seen success with dosing Epsom salt. I dosed a tbsp per gallon, and 2 weeks later I dosed again. The eye looks completely fine now! I don’t know if it is a coincidence and the Epsom salt didn’t actually do anything, but it certainly didn’t hurt!

Unfortunately he does seem to have lost some vision out of that eye, but al least the infection is gone and he is Much more active and eating very well.

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi, sorry I never followed up on this, but I thought you would want to know my Royal Gramma is doing fantastic now!

I put him in quarantine and did another round of erythromycin which helped but didn’t completely cure him after 20 days of treatment.

After that I did some more research and learned that some people had seen success with dosing Epsom salt. I dosed a tbsp per gallon, and 2 weeks later I dosed again. The eye looks completely fine now! I don’t know if it is a coincidence and the Epsom salt didn’t actually do anything, but it certainly didn’t hurt!

Unfortunately he does seem to have lost some vision out of that eye, but al least the infection is gone and he is Much more active and eating very well.

Thank you so much for your help!

I The blindness may be due in part to no agent (ethromyacin). As the fish is already in a salt environment, epsom salt is a Freshwater remedy and used Many years ago for goldfish and livebearer fish