Need help, Oscar with swollen eye!

[JanC]

Last night I heard some noises in the tank, splashes in the water etc.
Now I was checking my Oscar today and he has a small piece skin of his head, guess he bumped into something, that isnt a big problem though.
The bigger problem is that his right eye is swollen!
Its really big, he looks like a goldfish with those swollen eyes...

Here is a picture I took 5 days ago, his eye was fine back then.
I marked the swollen piece of his eye.
In between the red circles, where the arrow is pointing, is swollen now.

Yesterday was everything fine, so in a matter of 7 to 10 hours his eye looked like this.

Fellow inhabitants of tank:
Uaru, GT female, Comon Pleco
125gallon tank

Yesterday O his eye was just fine. He gets alot of different food plus I add extra vitamines to the water.
I do regular water changes, the water parameters prove the water is fine.
The fish doesnt have stress and he isnt harassed by other fish. He is the ruler of the tank.

Im thinking he might be attacked by someone this night? That was the sound of splashing I heard?
Or he hurt himself? I dont think its popeye or is it? And can popeye occure in less then 10 hours?

Water temp: 26°C
PH: 7,5
NO2: 0,0
gH: 18
kH: 11

EDIT: Forgot to mention he is eating fine and acting normal!

 

[TahoeFish]

Check out this site and read about pop-eye.
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_palace/tropicalfish_disease_identification.html#Popeye

 

[JanC]

Check out this site and read about pop-eye.
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_palace/tropicalfish_disease_identification.html#Popeye

Thanks for the info, though that doesnt explain anything to me.
The water parameters are fine, NO2 is at 0,0, NO3 is at 25, NH3 is at 0,003.

What should I do to help my O if its really popeye?

EDIT: Ive read the link you posted and the two other websites.
My oscar doesnt have a full white circle of tisue around his eye.
And those websites dont mention pieces of the iris missing.
Is it 100% sure this is popeye? Because if I read these things, I start to doubt.

 

[calioutlaw1a]

This is not pop-eye, this is trauma. His iris has been torn and beat up, and the swelling is due to fluid accumulating in/around the eye. Hopefully the swelling will subside and the eye will heal up with time, but there is likely some degree of permanent damage. You can see around the circumference of the lens, but hopefully it is still attached to the iris and not free floating.

 

[JanC]

This is not pop-eye, this is trauma. His iris has been torn and beat up, and the swelling is due to fluid accumulating in/around the eye. Hopefully the swelling will subside and the eye will heal up with time, but there is likely some degree of permanent damage. You can see around the circumference of the lens, but hopefully it is still attached to the iris and not free floating.

Thanks, thats what I was thinking also... Last night when I was sleeping, I heard alot of noise in the tank. It was like 4:00 at night.
As you can see on the pictures, he also damaged his head and on the third picture you can see he has a damaged right flank also.

I don't know what he did last night, maybe he scared so much that he banged against some of the wood in the tank?
Or the pleco might have attacked him during the night? But I highly doubt that.

I think he might have been asleep, and the pleco woke him up, this scared him and he banged into some wood, hurting his flank, head and his eye.

What do you suggest I should do?
Add some salt? But what kind of salt? Ive never done that. Ordinary kitchen salt? Or special salt?

 

[Jon M]

25ppm nitrates isn't exactly fine it's actually a little high. Not horribly high but typically you would do wc when nitrates hit 20ppm to keep them below. I personally keep all my tanks below 10ppm. Anyhow, it definitely looks like trauma damage. Your water perimeters wouldn't justify pop-eye either.

As far as dosing with salt it does help wounds heal. Non iodized salt. Believe it's 1 table spoon per 5 gallons. BUT I don't know if it'll be save with a pleco in there. Catfish are vulnerable to salt as far as I know. You must have some sort of decor in there that he was able to damage himself on though. Anything sharp, jagged edges on any of the wood, lava rock, practically anything pointy? Those are all major no nos for big dumb Oscar.

 

[JanC]

@ Jon M: Thanks for this info. I know the nitrate is a bit too high, I have trouble to keep it under 25. Any suggestions how to keep it under 25 would be appreciated.

There is wood in the tank and round river rocks. The only thing that could have hurt him is the wood. Some of the wood pieces have branches, I guess thats what hurt him.
I don't want to take out all my wood, but if i take out the pieces with branches, will that be enough?

I can't put the O or Pleco in another tank, so I guess I will stay off the salt if that would harm my pleco.

 

[Jon M]

@ Jon M: Thanks for this info. I know the nitrate is a bit too high, I have trouble to keep it under 25. Any suggestions how to keep it under 25 would be appreciated.

There is wood in the tank and round river rocks. The only thing that could have hurt him is the wood. Some of the wood pieces have branches, I guess thats what hurt him.
I don't want to take out all my wood, but if i take out the pieces with branches, will that be enough?

I can't put the O or Pleco in another tank, so I guess I will stay off the salt if that would harm my pleco.

I can guarantee you a huge nitrate drop with a simple solution. Get rid of the pleco. I know that might not be what you wanted to hear but they are massive bioload generators. I had one in my 125g with one O and he was killing me on nitrates as well. I just gave him to a local mfker here. Only other option is bumping your wc schedule up and making the wcs larger. Realistically though as he gets bigger it's just going to get worse.

They can definitely damage themself on the wood. They are clumsy dopes, that's for sure... The only pieces that would be hazardous to the O are the pieces with sharp points or edges. If you really want to go out of your way to keep those pieces with the sharp edges/points in there though you could dremel down all the sharp points/edges to rounds but if they are really, really thin it might be difficult to do so.

 

[JanC]

I can guarantee you a huge nitrate drop with a simple solution. Get rid of the pleco. I know that might not be what you wanted to hear but they are massive bioload generators. I had one in my 125g with one O and he was killing me on nitrates as well. I just gave him to a local mfker here. Only other option is bumping your wc schedule up and making the wcs larger. Realistically though as he gets bigger it's just going to get worse.

They can definitely damage themself on the wood. They are clumsy dopes, that's for sure... The only pieces that would be hazardous to the O are the pieces with sharp points or edges. If you really want to go out of your way to keep those pieces with the sharp edges/points in there though you could dremel down all the sharp points/edges to rounds but if they are really, really thin it might be difficult to do so.

Ok thanks for the help. Ill have to check the wood tomorrow and maybe take some pieces out.

About the pleco, I have him since he was little. I got attached to him, so I cant give him away. I guess ill do more WC instead.

 

[Jon M]

Yeah, I understand. I really liked my Mr. Gibby as well but it simply got to the point to where I was like as long as I find an MFKer to take him and I don't bring him to the LFS that's all that really matters. In my O tank my O messed with him and in the other tank my JD messed with him anyhow so I'm sure he's diggin' his new tank.