Anthias eye protruding?

[puck3]

Came home from work last night to find one of my anthias eye is protruding from his head. No fish in the tank has been visibly bothering him. He was slightly discolored and breathing heavily last night but this morning he seems ok and is still eating well. Any Ideas on what has happened and If he will be ok/ go back to normal????

[SushiGirl]

Sounds like popeye (http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/compldiagnodisease/a/aa053001.htm).

[dwanner]

Looks like a case of popeye, in my experience it will go away on its own if you keep feeding high quality foods (PE or Hikari mysis, Nutramar Ova, Roger's food, etc...) and keep your water quality high.

[puck3]

Yea sounds exactly like popeye. Thanks for link to article. And yes I've only been using quality food. PE mysis, new life marine spectrum pellets, and formula 2 pellets. Will monitor closely are if it gets better on its own otherwise I'll try an antibiotic. Thanks for all the help.

[Recty]

Hows your water quality? I've actually never had popeye show up in a fish yet, but what I've read from others is that doing multiple large water changes within the course of a week has helped a lot. Something in the water is causing it, it doesnt appear to be related to a parasite but instead to a water condition. So if you get rid of all the "bad" water as much as possible, this can help.

[Reefnub]

I would try curing that asap before it's too late. One of my bartlett's had popeye before. It healed and then few months later came back and I thought it would heal again. It became too late and he pretty much lost his eye and died.

[puck3]

DKH was low, was at 6 DKH. And PH was at 8.0, also a little low. Ammonia , nitrate, nitrite all at 0. Going to do a large water change tonight and continue with a decent size everyday for about a week I think. My anthias is also a barttlets anthias.

[Lynnmw1208]

melafix helps popeye and is reef safe. Just be sure you get the marine one or your skimmer will go nuts

[Announce]

Popeye for sure from what I can tell. Likely the fish damaged the eye scraping it against something. It is almost like when you get a scrape and if it gets infected you will see some pretty nasty swelling. Popeye can also be caused by parasitic irritation (such as flatworms) or a disease however these are much less common. Occasionally if left untreated or kept in poor water quality the fish can loose the eye, but as long as the tank quality is clean I have seen many heal up fine. If you wish to be safe as mentioned before an antibacterial such as melafix will help, but often isnt the best idea to treat in a larger reef tank.

hth

[LobsterOfJustice]

I've had popeye come up a few times, I never treat and it seems to go away on its own. When it pops up I get a little more strict about water changes and soaking foods in vitamins, not sure if it helps or not.