Sudden eye trauma?

Anihiel1 · Dec 5, 2020

One of my smaller blue chromis has suddenly what appears to be a blister completely covering one eye. He appeared healthy yesterday, and all other fish in the tank are healthy. Could this be an injury or an infection? I have not added any fish or corals or made any changes to the tank in months. Seems very out of the blue.
Apologies for the algae on the glass, hope the picture is clear enough?

Rp8 · Dec 5, 2020

Let's get u some expert advice @jayhemdal

Jay Hemdal · Dec 5, 2020

I can see air bubbles in the eye. There are two main causes of this: gas supersaturation in the tank or trauma. Gas supersaturation usually happens when a fitting is loose on the suction side of a pump, or a sump is allowed to catch air. Generally, more fish are affected, and it usually affects both eyes. Trauma can cause air bubbles in a fish's eye, and it is usually seen in just one fish, on just one side. I think that is what happened to your Chromis, although I can't explain what the cause might have been.

There isn't any treatment for this other than time. I once made a pressure chamber for fish. I could put fish like this in it, pressurize it with a SCUBA tank to about 28 psi and the bubble would reduce to almost nothing. Trouble is, when I bled off the pressure, the bubbles always came right back.

Jay

Anihiel1 · Dec 5, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
I can see air bubbles in the eye. There are two main causes of this: gas supersaturation in the tank or trauma. Gas supersaturation usually happens when a fitting is loose on the suction side of a pump, or a sump is allowed to catch air. Generally, more fish are affected, and it usually affects both eyes. Trauma can cause air bubbles in a fish's eye, and it is usually seen in just one fish, on just one side. I think that is what happened to your Chromis, although I can't explain what the cause might have been.

There isn't any treatment for this other than time. I once made a pressure chamber for fish. I could put fish like this in it, pressurize it with a SCUBA tank to about 28 psi and the bubble would reduce to almost nothing. Trouble is, when I bled off the pressure, the bubbles always came right back.

Jay