Red headed severum's eye

[ZeroOne]

Hey guys, usually I stick to the poly forum but I'm starting to have an issue with one of my severums. When I got them I bought 4 in november ~2-3inch long but one of them's eye stuck out a bit (seemed like pop-eye). I've done my best to keep the water as clean as I can and for the past 3 months I haven't noticed it decreasing or increasing in severity until today. I noticed today at the back of his eye he has almost like a pimple forming, like a little spikey on the back of his eye. It looks like a pimple skin on the outside and white on the inside (you can see inside it). If it is pop-eye I'm not sure the best way to treat it.. the lfs just said keep the water clean. It is. no other fish have issues and like I said I bought this one that way (didn't notice it in the store).

The forums suggest different treatments based on different causes, but how can I treat when I don't know the cause? I have epsom salt and the only antibiotic type med I have is clout.

Any suggestions?

 

[ZeroOne]

Don't know if it matters or not, but they are now between 4-5 inches and colouring up very nicely. Normal activity level and eating. 65gal tank. Everyone else is nice and healthy.

 

[driftwood]

Don't know if it matters or not, but they are now between 4-5 inches and colouring up very nicely. Normal activity level and eating. 65gal tank. Everyone else is nice and healthy.

I have a Heros Oblongum with the same condition and he's had it for a long time. I treated with various meds but nothing seemed to help. He is still in his tank and doesn't seem bothered by it but it bothers me. I am contemplating putting him down but just can't bring myself to do it. Good luck with your fish and hopefully someone will chime in with a med that I haven't tried.

 

[ZeroOne]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I'm just not sure what to do about this thing. He doesn't seem to care but this is the first time I've come across this sort of thing. Teach me to inspect the fish I buy a lot better... Hard to see when the bag is wet and the tank is full of them when they're small.

 

[ZeroOne]

So update. Treating the severum with antibiotic in another tank. The "pimple" like white thing behind his eye has grown larger (looks like it's going to pop), but the swelling of the eye has actually gone down a ton... like he looks like he doesn't have pop-eye anymore just one massive pimple. So what I think is happening is the same as a pimple. His body is fighting off the infection causing the swollen eye, the white blood cells die in the process forming puss. Now that there's a lot of puss the body is trying to get rid of it by forcing it out of the body (same idea as the pimple example). So that gets larger and white inside (puss is my logical conclusion) until it comes out.

Now that's the part I'm not sure what happens when a fish's pimple ruptures. He is in a hospital tank so only he should be affected by the results. Hoping the antibiotic helps reduce it before it ruptures (only started treatment today since I had to go buy materials for a hospital tank that broke and the weather here is horrible). As for his attitude, it's still the same as before and the others. Eats like a pig, rushes to food when available, swims normally, active like the others. So gotta wait and see.

Here's hoping.

 

[ZeroOne]

so after 2 days of treatment my severum now has clamped fins and is starting to get red on it's lower gill covers :S not the adult red collar but more like red showing between scales.. non normal red showing we'll say I'm not sure what to do, do i stop antibiotic treatment? do i continue and pop other things in there to help with the clamping? continue for the 3 more days and then just see if he recovers? stop everything all together? i have no idea anymore.. i've never been good at diagnosing fish problems..

he still very much has his popeye as i noticed today. the meds say don't stop once you started so i guess that's what i'm going to do. hope he pulls through.