NIger trigger with pop eye

[daniella3d]

Few days ago I bought a niger trigger which has been in quarantine since then. It had some sort of cloudiness in the eye, but it looked more like internal. I thought it was from the netting and that it would pass but today his eye is sort of swollen and is poping out a little and it is larger than the other eye.

Should I treat it with antibiotics? I have kanamycin. The fish has a great appetite and still eat like a little pig, but I surely cannot let this go.

Will kanamycine work? especialy since he eats I can soak his food in kanamycine, will that work?

Can it be a parasite inside the eye causing the cloudiness? It sort of look like something reflecting the light inside the eye of the fish rather than a cloudiness on the lens outside the eye.

[Lance]

Kananmycin is one of the recommended treatments, although I personally have never used it. I have used Epsom Salts with good results. Is the water quality good? Ammonia, nitrates and high salinity can be causes of Pop Eye. Hope this helps: Good Luck!

[daniella3d]

yes the water quality is number 1. undetectible nitrates, phosphates, ammonia and nitrites. Problem is that the fish was kept at 1.017 at the store and my tank was at 1.023. So I acclimated him during 4 hours from 1.017 to 1.023. Could this have caused the pop eye? if so, should I put him in low salinity with epsom salt?

That's my frag tank and it's been setup for about a year and he's the only fish in there, so water is quite good. All my coral are thrving in there and I do water change 15% every week.


I have added 1 tbs of epson salt in 20 gallons. Is that enough? I have coral in there so I did not want to put more unless it is safe.


Kananmycin is one of the recommended treatments, although I personally have never used it. I have used Epsom Salts with good results. Is the water quality good? Ammonia, nitrates and high salinity can be causes of Pop Eye. Hope this helps: Good Luck!

[Lance]

I can't remember the dosage for the salts, but you can find it on the Wet Web Media website. (type in pop eye and/or Epsom Salts in the Search box).
The sudden changes in salinity could very well have caused the problem.

[daniella3d]

I saw the dosage of 1tbs per 10 gallons on WWM but not sure if this is ok with coral in the tank?

I red on WWM that it will be ok for coral at small concentration..not sure if 1 tbs per 10 gallons is considered a "small concentration" though.



I can't remember the dosage for the salts, but you can find it on the Wet Web Media website. (type in pop eye and/or Epsom Salts in the Search box).
The sudden changes in salinity could very well have caused the problem.

[Lance]

I saw the dosage of 1tbs per 10 gallons on WWM but not sure if this is ok with coral in the tank?

I red on WWM that it will be ok for coral at small concentration..not sure if 1 tbs per 10 gallons is considered a "small concentration" though.


I just found a treatment of 1 tbs per 5 gallons is fine in a reef tank, so at 1 tbs per 10 gallons your corals should be fine.

[daniella3d]

How long did it take in your case to improve?

I am feeding him with food soaked in kanamycine as well. He eats everything no question asked.

I just found a treatment of 1 tbs per 5 gallons is fine in a reef tank, so at 1 tbs per 10 gallons your corals should be fine.

[Lance]

How long did it take in your case to improve?

I am feeding him with food soaked in kanamycine as well. He eats everything no question asked.


If it's a scratched eye it should heal pretty quickly; it did for me. 2 to 3 days. If it was caused by poor water conditions at the time of purchase it may take a little longer. Just guessing here though.

[daniella3d]

I don't know, maybe it was poor water condition from where he comes from. I am not going to buy any more fish from that LFS because they always have something. I have a blue tang in quarantine in the other tank in hyposalinity because he had ich, and it was exchanged as the first one also had ich and refused to eat. So it's the third fish I buy from that place and all of them had something wrong.

I am not sure it's going to resolve because he seemed to have something a bit whitish and reflective inside the eye before he started the pop eye, but we'll see with time. I will keep feeding him twice a day with bloodworms soaked in kanamycin and epsom salt is in the tank.

If it's a scratched eye it should heal pretty quickly; it did for me. 2 to 3 days. If it was caused by poor water conditions at the time of purchase it may take a little longer. Just guessing here though.

[daniella3d]

After nearly 3 weeks in Paraguard the eye have cleared and I don't see the white thing inside anylonger. The pop eye has receided quite a bit but there is still some swelling as I can see one eye is larger than the other still.

I was hoping that I can put the fish in my display tank this weekend as I don't think I can do much more for this eye that what I have done already. Will this eye eventualy return to 100% normal? should I continue the paraguard treatment until it is 100% normal? Should I just put the fish in the display tank and let it finish healing there? I am not sure what to do at this point?

The fish is still small and I am pretty sure as it will grow up the eye will return to normal size has its body will grow, but not sure realley what to do for right now?

[viperfish]

Just be patient, keep the water quality up, and keep the stress level low. I have an Orange Shoulder Tang that had pop eye when I got him (I felt bad for the poor little guy). It's been a couple of months and it's almost gone, no treatment of any kind, just a healthy environment.

[Stones]

If you do introduce the trigger to your display tank, you will no longer have the option of feeding food soaked in antibiotics. Since you the majority of the infection has already been taken care of, a diet of frozen and prepared foods soaked in garlic extract and a vitamin supplement such as selcon will surely help the fish recover as well.

[JonT]

Make sure there will be little to no stress in the system. If you are going to put him in the tank, make sure nothing will bully him.

These triggers are really resilient. I too have one. He has survived a few attacks, and some scratches from being a chicken (the two smaller clowns bully him sometimes)

[daniella3d]

I have stopped the food with antibiotics long ago, 3 weeks ago in fact as it was not doing anything. I think the white stuff inside the eye was eye flukes and paraguard took care of it. I only saw improvement after about 4 days in paraguard and the eye cleared, then the swelling started to slowly go away.

I treated for one week with kanamycin and I usualy don't treat more than that with antibiotics if I don't see improvement and I change treatment then. Glad I did as paraguard worked well.

If you do introduce the trigger to your display tank, you will no longer have the option of feeding food soaked in antibiotics. Since you the majority of the infection has already been taken care of, a diet of frozen and prepared foods soaked in garlic extract and a vitamin supplement such as selcon will surely help the fish recover as well.

[daniella3d]

Nothing will bully him for sure :) I have only pacific fish in there. A blue hippo tang, 3 cardinals, 1 mandarin and 1 clowfish. :)

All of my current fishes are sweeties, very very pacific with each other and all eat together without fight. The only stress he would have is to adjust to a new tank, but a much larger one and a lot more places to hide than this 20 gallons with 3 little pieces of liverock he's in right now.

So what do you think? put it in the DT?

water quality in both display tank and quarantine tank is zero detectible nitrates, ammonia and nitrites as well as no detectible phosphates. I would say it's pretty good water quality.

I feed him with garlic soaked food: shrimp pieces, nori algae, spirulina enriched brine, fish roe and live white worms on occasion.


Make sure there will be little to no stress in the system. If you are going to put him in the tank, make sure nothing will bully him.

These triggers are really resilient. I too have one. He has survived a few attacks, and some scratches from being a chicken (the two smaller clowns bully him sometimes)