Clownfish with messed up eyes (1 Viewer)

[Scoto]

Making a thread to get some opinions on this clownfish's eyes. A few photos below of left, right and front angles to get the full picture.

So far he has been treated with prazi and methylene blue dips once every couple of days. It is looking less bulgy (at one point the left eye looked like it would go pop-eye) but I'm concerned about the cloudiness and apparent lumpiness and the odd red discoloration behind the eyes on the head (most obvious in first picture). I'm guessing based on how he moves around that he actually can't see very much at the moment - as a result he chooses very low flow areas and is not eating well. Any thoughts?

 

[soymilk]

citing humblefish Eye Issues – Marine Fish Diseases and Treatment

3. Popeye / Eye Swelling

This is more of a condition than an actual disease, usually caused by physical injury or eye trauma. Basically, the fish bumps its head into a rock or damages the eye in some other way. As a result, the area around the eye swells or protrudes. Or sometimes parasites, flukes and/or harmful bacteria can irritate the eye and cause this swelling. Whether or not it self-heals is usually determined by whether or not a pathogen is causing it.
There are a couple of methods you can employ to help reduce the swelling:

(a) Dose Epsom salt @ 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons every other day until eye(s) look normal again. Only use USP (food grade) Epsom salt with NO scents or surfactants added in. Some argue this doesn’t do anything because Epsom salt is just magnesium sulfate, and that is already abundant in seawater. However, anecdotal evidence has proven otherwise – perhaps Epsom salt contains another ingredient which provides efficacy. In any case, it’s not harmful to try it.

(b) If Epsom salt doesn’t work for you, then a little “fish surgery” might be in your future a la @Paul B style. To quote Paul directly:

“Take the fish out, hold him in a net, or have someone else hold him. Stick a hypodermic needle through the stretched tissue near the top of his eye, not in the eye itself and withdraw the plunger on the needle. The eye will immediately retreat and go back where it was last month and the fish will be very happy. I have done that dozens of times and never lost or blinded a patient.”

 

[sneezebeetle]

Agree with @soymilk. I used epsom salt in conjunction with meds for a wrasse I had with pop eye and it really seemed to help the fish with comfort and irritation.

 

[Scoto]

Adding the epsom salt routine today!

 

[sneezebeetle]

Adding the epsom salt routine today!

Keep us posted!

 

[Humblefish]

If Epsom salt doesn’t fix the issue, I would consider dosing Erythromycin (an antibiotic) for a possible eye infection.

 

[Scoto]

Clown eye update. He's in a 55G now with a few tangs going through quarantine and in the last day or so really seems to have taken a turn for the better. These are the best photos of each side that I could get without catching him in the breeder box for a closer look. I've seen two signs that I'm taking as signs of improvement - first the black coloration is beginning to come back to his cornea most noticeable in his left eye which is where the swelling originally started. I'm guessing based on reading that the swelling damaged this part of his eye and the coloration went more orange/cloudy (you can see his right eye still has only a black pupil and no black on the cornea yet). All his siblings have black eyes so I'm taking black as good. And second is I think he is starting to be able to see again, he is beginning to swim off the bottom again and even chasing objects in the water again (before I had to make sure there was sinking food cause he seemed to mess around on the bottom running his face all over the place until he ran into things). He still seems a little on the skinny side, but hopefully a few days of full bellies will start fixing that.

 

[Humblefish]

@Scoto Great news!