Bad Eye Infection

[pipaloo]

After battling some water quality issues that are now completely resolved, I noticed that my blue face had a cloudy eye which I began treating with maracyn baths. They did not work and I've moved on to furacyn. The fish is doing quite well despite his new handicap, but I am wondering if an eye this bad can ever fully recover. I hope the image attaches correctly as it shows the eye quite well

 

[beth]

The thing to do is not "bathe" by quarantine and treat. I'm assuming you don't have a QT?
Would you mind if I used your picture as an example for this site?

 

[pipaloo]

First of all, feel free to use the picture. I do have a tank that I can set up for a hospital tank, but I was concerned about maintaining water quality in the small tank given the large size of this fish. Knowing how important water quality is for curing this type of infection, I was not sure if the trade off would have been worth it considering that my tank has returned to excellent water quality. If I were to put him into the hospital tank, how would I control the ammonia that would be sure to rise given the animal's size? Anyway, any procedural advice would be appreciated as far as transferring him to a hospital tank. By the way, the eye has gotten dramatically better in the past two days, but I still want to do what is best and maximize his treatment.

 

[chipmunk]

I have a Pink anthias square box that had pop eye and I kept on feeding him his food but added a medium to high dose of garlic to his food. And with in 2 weeks no mor pop eye.

 

[beth]

I am hesitant to even recommend an antibiotic treatment in an uncycled QT for the very reasons you state.
Try the garlic and alternate feedings with zoecon. Feed 3x a day with quality foods such as the homemade foods I mention in the FAQ. In the meantime, try to setup that QT using the advise in the FAQ Thread at the top of this forum. Use a few pieces of LR to kickstart the cycle, then return the LR to the display if treatment becomes necessary. To set up the QT, use water from the display.