POPEYE?? Help Please!

I have a Dwarf Gourami in a 4ft 200l tank with 7 rummy nose tetras and 4 cardinal tetras. The tank is still cycling, we do water changes of at least 10-30% every day or every other day. It is also a planted tank with some vallisneria, hornwort and some red leaf plant.

The day before yesterday I rescaped the tank a bit (moved the plants and driftwoord and did a waterchange of about 30-40%

Yesterday I did a 20% waterchange and noticed my DG's eyes are a little puffy, not so much the eye but it looks like the eye socket around the eye. only about 1mm swollen. I read online and suspected popeye, so I changed another 50% to make sure the water is very clear and clean.

I added Epsom salts as I read that it could reduce the swelling, but the fish didn't seem to like it, they all swam around very erratically and the tetras were very nippy with each other so I changed another 50% of the water after about 30 mins of adding the Epsom salts. So there is still some of the Epsom salts in there, but the fish are swimming normally again.

I also checked the filter and rinsed it in tank water and smelled that nice earthly smell - so I know the filter media is coming along great.

His eyes look the same today, he eats normally and swims around a lot, checked his poop it's normal brown and not white and stringy - his behavior seems normal.

Any advice on what to do? could this be something other than popeye?

I don't have a quarantine tank but can buy one if needed. What meds do you recommend which are easily available? I live in a very small west coast town with only 2 LFS's with a very poor variety of meds, poor variety of anything actually as I ordered my seachem prime, tetra fish foon and aquarium lights all online. I can't add regular meds or aquarium salt to the entire tank as I don't want to kill the good bacteria forming or the plants...I cannot find any solutions online as I don't have access to many of the meds mentioned on overseas forums.

I just don't want to lose this guy but is also afraid of stressing him with meds etc for no reason and causing more harm than good.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

I tried getting some pics

 

Never had any experience with it myself, but from the bit of research I have done it seems to be a bacterial infection. I would recommend trying to get hold of a quarantine of some kind, or maybe just run a separate dipping bath for the fish, and do a simple salt bath. From there, regular water changes and hopefully within a little while you will be good to go again. Not sure how contagious it is though to be honest.. Hopefully someone with some experience will chime in, maybe @MariaS or @Pezulu will have an idea?

 

@Charine

I cant really see the extent of it from the pictures however popeye or cloudy eyes is usually either a bacterial infection or more often than not, water quality ie ammonia, nitrite or ph swings

The fact that your tank is not cycled indicates to me that this was caused by water issues

Are you adding any Stability or any other bacteria in a bottle to start up the good bacteria growth?
Are you testing your water as the tank cycles?
What water declorinator are you using?
Dwarf Gouramis might not be able to handle the swings in water chemistry during the cycling process

I would suggest you get some Stability by Seachem and start a course of that to kick start and speed up the bacteria growth in your filter
Prime makes ammonia non toxic during cycling, maybe get some as well

The sucess rate of treating popeye, to the best of my knowledge is not always very high but they say Epson salt baths at 1 tablespoon for 5 gallons helps
If bacterial you can also get Kanaplex from Seachem, it's an antibiotic
Quarantine is the best way to treat

I must however say that my gut feeling is that its been caused by ammonia fluctuations due to the cycling process

 

The other thing that i see you say is that you cleaning out your filter in tank water which is a little confusing to me

How long has the tank been running?
A tank that's busy cycling, should not need a filter clean as yet?

To safely cycle a tank with fish in, you should test your water daily

 

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get a test kit yet, my LFS don't stock them and the site from which I purchased didn't have any in stock (ordered over Christmas time) My tank has been running for two weeks.

I rinsed my filter in tank water just to make sure there wasn't any clogging due to the plants in my tank being moved - small leaves and things. I made sure to use tank water to not kill any bacteria.

I do use a bacteria starter: Insta-Pure magic bacteria starter. I add this with every water tank - I only dose the water I am adding. The bottle says safe and non toxic for fish and plants, should this dosage be adjusted? bottle only specifies the quality and not frequency.
I use Seachem prime as dechlorinator and use double dosage.
I use seachem excel and flourish for the plants - add twice a week due to frequent water changes.

Getting the right meds now is near impossible due to my location - previous online order took 2 weeks to get here.

I went to LFS, they had Seachem stress guard (says antiseptic on the bottle) and Dophin 5 in one parasite special and Daro anti ich meds

I purchased a quarantine tank (smal 1ft tank) and the seachem stress guard.

I added the stress guard to the community tank as a precaution.

Do you think it would be a good idea to:
Do a salt bath with Epsom salts daily and keep the DG in the quarantine tank the rest of the time with stressguard?

I put an airstone in the quarantine tank but no filter, is this fine? should I add a filter? I got an undergravel filter with the tank and some substrate but didn't add that.

 

Sounds like it is a cycling issue - hopefully you can get a test kit soon.

Try doubling the dosage of your bacteria with each change, and remember to leave lights and air pump off for about 2 hours whenever you add this, not sure its always the case but some manufacturers recommend it as it helps certain bacteria to seed. Keep the filter running though as this is where you want the majority of your bacteria to form.

I am not sure how effective the stressguard will be for this, but I suppose it won't do any harm to add it in. My suggestion would be a salt bath every other day, and keep it in the quarantine. Personally I would suggest a basic filter, even just one of those small corner filters just to keep the water quality as high as possible, with regular small water changes (10-20%). The airstone is a good idea but if you are running a filter that's airpump powered it will provide the same results with regards to surface agitation. Substrate isn't needed in the quarantine but I would suggest some cover/hiding spots for the DG as it may make it feel a little more comfortable.

 

Guys...this is going to sound stupid. I think it was a false alarm.

I just gave him the epsom salt bath, and then moved him to quarantine tank. His eyes look fine now in the tank with regular lighting just from the surroundings...We added new lights the day before yesterday in the big tank and it might be that his eyes seemed bulgy under the new lighting conditions. I checked him out from above while he was in the bath and they seem fine, I also compared a photo I took in the natural light just now with a photo from about a week ago...looks the same...

His behaviour has been perfectly normal, eating and chomping a leaf that might float by.

We have been doing water changes every day or at least every other day since we got the tank, plants are growing perfectly, all the tetras are very brightly coloured and happy.

Will keep him in QT tank just for in case for a few days before moving him back.

 

@A new day, thanks. I will order from them, I'm 350km from CT so will stock up when in the area some time. I saw the McMerwe online shop and it looks very impressive. I can't wait 1-2 weeks for an order it's frustrating. I live in Vredendal now and I didn't realise the access to everything out here is quite basic. Lived in Gauteng the last time we had fish tanks. Everything apart form the driftwood and the tank itself I had to order online, including lighting food and the chems.

For the QT tank I got a filter and will add that, he is perfectly happy and fine and after careful inspection under regular lighting conditions I don't think there's anything wrong with his eyes, so I moved him back to regular tank. He's swimming around eating whatever he finds on the plants here and there as he's always done.

Will keep the QT running so that it's fully cycled by the time we get new fish the community tank, so that we can quarantine them first.

 

I had two of them, bought them together and they lasted about a year, they both had the same disease, they swell up around the eyes and tummy and 3 days later its funeral time, i read its a common disease with them

 

Just an update, he is doing perfectly fine. Eyes still look the same, it is definitely the lighting which made me think he had popeye...when the lights are turned off they look completely normal as they did before, shadow and light make a huge difference in appearance.

Thanks for everyone's help.

 

Glad to hear it was a false alarm and he is doing well