Help, I believe my fish has Popeye.

[Colby Webre]

Have you tested your water?

Yes

If yes, what is your ammonia?

0

If yes, what is your nitrite?

0

If yes, what is your nitrate?

20-40

If I did not test my water...

...I recognize that I will likely be asked to do a test, and that water tests are critical for solving freshwater health problems.

Do you do water changes?

Yes

What percentage of water do you change?

21-30%

How frequently do you change your water?

Every week

If I do not change my water...

...I recognize that I will likely be recommended to do a water change, and water changes are critical for preventing future freshwater health problems.

What is the water volume of the tank? 125 gallon
How long has the tank been running? 4 years
Does it have a filter? 2 hob and 1 fx4
Does it have a heater? yes
What is the water temperature? 82F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)
1 blue phantom pleco
5 BA tetras
1 geophagus surinamensis (was 2 last time I checked)
1 Zebra Pike cichlid (The man of problem)

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? every week or so
How much of the water do you change? 25G
What do you use to treat your water? Prime
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? just the water, my geos filter the sand to keep it clean but i do vacuum up poop

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? DUH of course
What do you use to test the water? API test kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: between 20-40
pH: 6.0-6.4

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Once per day, but I was on vacation from friday afternoon till this morning when I found out.
How much do you feed your fish? My pike eats a couple frozen krill per day, like 3-4 krill soaked in VITACHEM
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Whatever the store has, right now san fransisco bay brand
Do you feed frozen? Yes
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? Since last June
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? When I got home, so this morning
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? I think he has popeye disease/ physical trauma
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No I need advice BAD
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? NO
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? It really hasn't as far as I can tell

Explain your emergency situation in detail.

Like I explained above I was on vacation from Friday until this morning in which I discovered that one of my geophagus had died and was stuck against my HOB filter and my pike cichlid has popeye in his right eye.
Before I left I did a water change and fed them well and all seemed perfect, so I dont know what went wrong.
This whole situation has me extremely worried as I care very deeply about this fish and have worked hard to make this tank perfect for him. I am close to having a panic attack.
I'm also wondering if my geophagus dying is related to the popeye at all, or if my geo just miraculously starved in 3 days (I have left them for a few days before and they were perfectly fine).
My pike has been slowly picking off my BA tetras one by one over the past few weeks, so One theory I have is that my pike tried to eat my geo and he like choked on his spines or something, and it killed my geo and wounded my pike.
Other than that my water parameters are fine so I dont know how my pike would have gotten a horrible disease like popeye. the only good news is that he is acting pretty normal and ate and has been acting himself. He is and has always been kind of a spaz, darting around driftwood very quickly, so He oculd have also injured himself doing that.
Please someone help!



I have some pictures here (his fin has always been like that ever since I got him btw)

 

[Deadeye]

First off, thank you for the detailed post!
I’d definitely be looking to do bigger water changes to keep the nitrates below 20 ppm (as close to zero as possible is ideal), but that isn’t the root of the problem.
That does look like popeye on the pike. Luckily, if caught early, it is really easy to treat (and in many cases will heal on its own). Your best bet is to use an antibiotic - kanamycin or maracyn works well. Popeye is usually a response to an injury, make sure there aren’t any sharp edges it could have hit itself on.

As for the dead geo, there are a lot of reasons. The pike is definitely a potential cause.

 

[Colby Webre]

First off, thank you for the detailed post!
I’d definitely be looking to do bigger water changes to keep the nitrates below 20 ppm (as close to zero as possible is ideal), but that isn’t the root of the problem.
That does look like popeye on the pike. Luckily, if caught early, it is really easy to treat (and in many cases will heal on its own). Your best bet is to use an antibiotic - kanamycin or maracyn works well. Popeye is usually a response to an injury, make sure there aren’t any sharp edges it could have hit itself on.

As for the dead geo, there are a lot of reasons. The pike is definitely a potential cause.

Thanks for your response, in your opinion, would my best bet to dose medication for my whole 125g tank or just let him heal on his own, while doing water changes and feeding him food? I'm not a huge fan of medication as I am afraid it could mess up my whole tank, since Ive had it happen before in a different tank. And is there anyway to know if it was caused by physical trauma or if it is something underlying?

 

[SalviniCichlidFan]

Something off about the dead geo is that the main part of it that's gone is the head. Usually in my experience when a fish dies, other fish tend to eat the dead fish's stomach first and lastly their head and tail. However, this is not the case here so it is unusual.

 

[Colby Webre]

Something off about the dead geo is that the main part of it that's gone is the head. Usually in my experience when a fish dies, other fish tend to eat the dead fish's stomach first and lastly their head and tail. However, this is not the case here so it is unusual.

I do have a good size meat eating pleco, so that could be an explanation for that, and plecos eat by scraping and then inhaling, which might explain the weird marks on him. Would ist be foolish to wait a few days to see if his eye heals up? It doesn't have any cloudiness to it, I can still clearly see his pupil, its just sticking out.

 

[Deadeye]

The one time I didn’t treat popeye, the fish lost an eye (but that was much more severe than this). Dosing directly to the tank shouldn’t be a problem (a few months ago I had to dose my 125 with kanaplex and had no issues). It is best to dose in a qt just to avoid wasting meds (and potentially harming the biofilter) though.

 

[FJB]

In my experience, although Popeyes can develop from physical injuries to the eyes, more often than not is caused by high bacterial levels in tanks, in other wood poor water quality. We are not talking of nitrifying bacteria, but of gram + and - bacteria, often associated with insufficient maintenance (water changes, lowering nitrates, and general bottom cleaning). Thus, the suggestion of upping water changes is very valuable. And I agree that with improved conditions, some antibiotic and some luck, it may recede and leave no permanent damage.

 

[Colby Webre]

UPDATE: After about 3 Days, he went back to complete normality and there is nothing wrong with him. He is still doing great, I never dosed anything!