Hi there, Michelle (Sid's wife here). Our golden female appears to have something wrong with her eye ... its has swollen up really badly and sticks out from the side of her face. We are not sure if she has been beaten up or is sick ... any advice would be appreciated.

hi michelle, are u able to post a pic?

what kind of fish is it?

i think (sid is the expert) its a golden cichlid ... sorry cant do a photo not than techanalogical ... sorry I am not much help ... sid is at work and asked if I could find out anything ...

if its just happened all of a sudden id guess that it had either had a fight or caught it on a sharp bit of rock or something?

personally i would do a few more waterchanges than usual to keep the water nice and clean, and see if it comes right on its own.

if the eye falls out the fish will probably be ok ive had a few that have lost an eye and theyve been sweet

anyone else got any suggestions?

thanks for your advice ... will have to name it wink now!!!

Hard to tell without a pic. Is the eye cloudy as well?

Has possibly damaged it.

hard to tell if it is cloudy as cant get a close enough look ... fish is very stressed at the moment tho ...

Could be popeye. Google it and see if it looks the same as the pictures.

If it is and its only one eye then its probably beeen in a fight or banged it on something. If its two it could be bacterial and you'll need to treat it as such.

just got in from work and spent half an hour waiting to get a good look at her eye-to me it seems that theres a wound just behind the eye causing swelling(?) or damage to the eye itself.

there's nothing sharp in the tank (that I can think of), so I'll guess theres been un usually high level of aggro.

tanks reasonably well planted but could use more cover,plenty of caves and drift wood

in tank there is:

pair of golden dwarf cichlids(female has the bad eye)

pair of panduro(probably caused it)

2 BN's

10 neons and

6 golden pencil's

any suggestions for possible treatment? she's eating normally but is otherwise pretty listless and hiding in the plants at the back.

will try get and post a photo

got photo's but having trouble with image shack-will try again in morning

photo's arn't too god but should show what i mean

any sugested treatments? should I seperate from the main tank-I have a little 27 liter tank I can use as a hospital tank - would only take a short time to set up

bought melafix and will be setting up hospital tank later when I get a box filter off Gannet.

just a bare tank with some cover (Ambula) and a cave-that ok?

Yep that will be good.

I had a similar problem with a white calvus female 3 weeks ago. Her eye was damaged aswell and starting to swell. looked a lot like in your pic. To be on the safe side I threw her into a cycled 2 footer & got some tetracycline tablets. Which is a good anti bacterial.

She come out good. The eye is clear, no swelling, lense is stuffed but at least it healed up & she still has some sight in the eye.

Here is a good link to eye problems...

http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/fish_diseases/eyes.html

Frenchy

I think it looks like pop eye. I don't usually do anything for a day or so if its only one eye and it seems to come right on its own.

ok got hospital tank set up -had to wait over 2 hours before she was out in the open and I could catch her with out undue stress.

got a better look at the eye -is definatly a wound of some type -theres flesh (or what looks to be flesh ) hanging loose .

will keep you informed of progress-thanks for your help especially when Michelle was on here while I was at work

The eye does show damage, in relation to external damage. & also note the damage to the fins too. It is getting picked on.

I think the hospital tank is a good idea. Also when you re introduce, check to see what fish it is fighting with.

Frenchy

Eyes looking mutch better today-wound's just forward of the eye -to early to tell but posible that the eye itself may be ok

I can take a good guess that it's the panduro-thought there'd be enough cover for every one to co-exist but looks like I was wrong .

just did some minor re arangements and will be adding more plants before re intoducing her to the main tank -hope that will help

Good luck, hope it goes well

Frenchy

Ok- she's healing well -although the eye is gone -somthing realy had a go at her-will be adding extra plants on sunday(stargrass) which should provide more cover/places to hide-could any one suggest some floating plants as the tank is still quite bare at the top.

thats the good news -everything else seems to have gone to hell :- http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/having ... 21161.html