General Care Discussion :: pop eye ( fish )

[Tenodera]

Another fish has the disease! One of my oldest, 3 years old! His eyes are all swollen and "popped out" What do I do??? I don't want it to spread to my other fish or Serra!!

I can't go and buy fish medicine, I don't have a quarantine tank and I don't wanna kill it!!! what do I do??

[xsavingsaturdayx]

If you cant afford another tank, medicine, etc..then honestly kevin you have no other option..in this case I believe putting it to sleep forever is best But why cant you get fish medicine? I believe it isnt too expensive..

P.S. I have no idea if serra can get ill from this, but ya never know ..Obviously it's contagious so your other fish are probably going to catch it too unless you take action.

[Tenodera]

well...you know...moms. "Its just a fish, flush it down the toilet. Besides, the turtle will eat it."

Serra never eats fish...

How should I do it....I've never really killed anything before....makes me want to hurl.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

So are you SURE you have no other choice? There isnt a way that you can convince your mom to buy medicine for it? If there is a slight chance that she will say yeah I wouldnt want you to kill the poor thing, that is only a last resort

[Tenodera]

Will my other fish get infected just by swimming in the sick fish's water? Would Serra get this eye disease?

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Well it's obviously contagious, didnt your other fish have the same thing not too long ago? And as for serra, i realy dont know..but I wouldnt feel safe having her around other sick creatures.

[Tenodera]

Yea....the one that had it last month was discovered behind the filter, dead and rotting....*shiver*

Well Serra doesn't have any sign of it, nor do the other fish. Tomorrow I'll take him out, and do a 50% water change.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

Well I did do a quick search and found out that pop eye is usually caused by septicemia or tuberculosis, it can supposedly also be a water quality issue so you might want to start testing your water..you might also want to google it and do more research. The info pretty much said to seperate it from other fish, treat with antibiotics and feed medicated food.

[xsavingsaturdayx]

oy, becareful too..take a look at this http://www.petlibrary.com/goldfish/popeye.htm supposedly you can catch tuberculosis from it

[Tenodera]

yea, but the my fish's disease isn't pop eye, its more of both eyes swelled up and red.
I said it's a kind of bacterial infection.

Whats the best way to euthanize it?

[DavidY]

There's a couple of ways to do it. Probably the quickest way is to remove it from the tank and hold it over the sink in the net, then pour boiling or near boiling hot water on it for a couple of seconds. Supposedly it's instantaneous and the fish's senses overload (shock) so it never feels a thing. The other method is to wrap it in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer (less violent but takes longer). Or just remove it from the water, put it in a little plastic bag of water, put a straw in throught the top of the bag and continually blow bubbles from your mouth into the water, holding the top of the bag loosely around the straw so excess air can escape. The CO2 from your lungs will knock the fish unconscious. At that point you can do the hot water or the freezer thing and it will definitely not feel any pain.

[Tenodera]

Hey yesterday I put in a lot of aquarium salt to see if it works and the swelling DEFINITELY went down. It's still a bit red, though. I'll have to see if he recovers. I'm gonna do a 50 percent water change to clean out the bacteria.

[DavidY]

THat's good to hear! I hope he has a full recover.

[Tenodera]

yea, I really hope he recovers...I don't like killing things.

Plus, he's 3 years old. In his lifetime he killed a goldfish and two catfish.
vicious little thing. When I got him I bought him along with 5 others. Now only two of them survive.

[Tenodera]

I'm glad to say it made a FULL recovery! No swelling, no redness, and it has an appetitie again!

Aquarium Salt Saves the day!