Hmmm. A nice fish vet/hobbyist called me last night and thinks it's an infection due to eye trauma. She suggested Maracyn-Two b/c most fish infections are from gram-negative bacteria, not gram-positive (which erythromycin treats). Anyway, here's a picture of a human eye, which is how it looked like on the fish, before the pus got out of control.
http://www.stlukeseye.com/Conditions/Hypopyon.asp#t
Now its eye is just like a shark's-- the oval shape, and the whole eye's white except the pupil. The eye also is markedly smaller than its normal one. Deflated. This must be frustrating for you all to read!
Porcupinefish w/ Cloudy Eye?
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Pufferpunk
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UCLA Puffer
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2005 3:53 pm
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
So, I finally managed to get the UCLA vets to get over here and my puff got some pus sampled, an injection of Enrofloxacin (Baytril), and a test to see if its cornea was damaged. It is...you take a fluorescein powder strip, dab it on the fish's eye, then take a squirt of saline solution to rinse off the excess powder and also mix with the fluorescein. If the eye runs clear, the cornea's intact. If there's a fluorescent glow in the eye, the fluorescein/saline has penetrated the eye. Poor puffer has a ruptured cornea, which may have been how the infection got in. So I will be giving him injections of the antibiotic every other day in the tail, alternating the right and left side so he doesn't get too bruised. He recovered from his anethesia (100mg MS-222 in 4 L of water) right away, so he's perky and eating. But his right eye is bright yellow!!!! 
I got all jargony, I know, but you might need to take your puffer to the vet some day! I can't wait for the bill.......
I got all jargony, I know, but you might need to take your puffer to the vet some day! I can't wait for the bill.......-
Feathers&Fins
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 201
- Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:42 pm
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- My Puffers: Pufferless since Nova passed; had 2 red T.miuris, 4 T.biocellatus for many years.
- Location (country): KY (USA)
- Location: (US) Kentucky
That eyeball photo… *gag*
I hope your guy does well.
I actually had to have that test performed on me a couple of years ago. My Cockatoo speared me in the eye with a trimmed quill. Quite painful. Mine healed properly with antibiotic drops. Left a brown scar on the white of my eye though.UCLA Puffer wrote:It is...you take a fluorescein powder strip, dab it on the fish's eye, then take a squirt of saline solution to rinse off the excess powder and also mix with the fluorescein. If the eye runs clear, the cornea's intact. If there's a fluorescent glow in the eye, the fluorescein/saline has penetrated the eye.
I hope your guy does well.
I have the flourescein test done routinely - but it's already in solution, thankfully - when I have my lens check-ups every 12 - 18 months. It detects corneal erosion (I've never had any).
The funny thing is, once I had it done when I had a cold, and, as excess fluid from your eyes comes out through your nose, I had bright yellow snot for the rest of the day!
So glad your puff is on the mend...how's he taking to the jabs?
It seems that these puffs are prone to eye probs...maybe cos they have big sticky-out eyes that are more vulnerable.
Does the vet think he's gonna be blind in that eye?
Pami.
The funny thing is, once I had it done when I had a cold, and, as excess fluid from your eyes comes out through your nose, I had bright yellow snot for the rest of the day!
So glad your puff is on the mend...how's he taking to the jabs?
It seems that these puffs are prone to eye probs...maybe cos they have big sticky-out eyes that are more vulnerable.
Does the vet think he's gonna be blind in that eye?
Pami.
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UCLA Puffer
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2005 3:53 pm
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
Feathers&Fins wrote:That eyeball photo… *gag*
Yeah, that eyeball photo was really repulsive. But now we all know what a typcial eye w/ "cloudy eye" does NOT look like.
Bright yellow snot! How horribly fun! Probably Made you wonder if you have a sinus infection but you must've had a good laugh.
El Puffer is feeling better, but I'm afraid the vets think he won't be able to see clearly out of that eye. Last night I was coming up with creative ways of re-filling his vitreal space (I think that's the name), like with saline solution, clear gelatin...but don't worry, I'd never torture him with a procedure like that. The infection's still there but it'll take some time til the antibiotic kicks in.
Yep, the puffer's big googly eyes probably get more beat up than any other fish's.
Pamela, I just saw the news-- we're all thinking of you guys!!!
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UCLA Puffer
- Puffer Fry
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Well, for whatever reason my puff passed last weekend, actually, a week ago. I think it was a combo of too much handling, the injections, and the fact that I had to take him with me to San Diego so I could treat him over the weekend. The cytology results came back, showing lots of white blood cells (duh) in the pus sample, but no bacteria. Very strange. In any case, time was the best solution to the eye, because nothing helped. Melafix, erythromycin, hydrogen peroxide dips, all didn't do anything. I'm not sure that the enrofloxacin did anything either. The antibiotics had nothing to attack. So what I learned is watch out that your puffer doesn't have an opportunity to knock himself in the eye. If he does and you notice swelling (a big ole' eye), that's when you put your all into getting the swelling down, otherwise the eye might be lost. Poor puff!
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Feathers&Fins
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 201
- Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:42 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Pufferless since Nova passed; had 2 red T.miuris, 4 T.biocellatus for many years.
- Location (country): KY (USA)
- Location: (US) Kentucky
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UCLA Puffer
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Sat Jul 16, 2005 3:53 pm
- Location: Los Angeles, CA