The Puffer Forum

I just noticed my puffer has developed pop eye, do I treat it with melafix?

Won't hurt, that's for sure.

Some people have treated it successfully with Melafix, antibiotics such as pennicilin should do the trick.

I've heard good things about Ampicillin in treating popeye
GelTek makes it in the drops too

marksrush wrote:Won't hurt, that's for sure.

well i was just making sure it was the right stuff to fix it...

Stick with good water quality & Melafix. You don't want to crash the biological filtration.

I don't know if this is relevant, but the saltwater fish at the store where I work have gotten pop eye now and again. I only ever saved one, and I did it by cutting the membrane behind the eye(which was easily reached because of the swelling) with a tiny slit using a sharp razor, and letting the infection out. Puss and some actual bubbles of bacterial waste gasses came out, and the fish began eating again and acting normally the next day.

My GSP has popeye, I treated for 4-5 days so far with Maracyn-Two (it's looking much better), the water has been fine but all of a sudden today when my husband put the dose in, the water turned really yellow/green... is this ok or should we do a water change now and retreat?

Nick wrote:I don't know if this is relevant, but the saltwater fish at the store where I work have gotten pop eye now and again. I only ever saved one, and I did it by cutting the membrane behind the eye(which was easily reached because of the swelling) with a tiny slit using a sharp razor, and letting the infection out. Puss and some actual bubbles of bacterial waste gasses came out, and the fish began eating again and acting normally the next day.

ahhh oh man thats crazy, i have been treating with maracyn-two and it has gotten a lot better, but now my waters a weird green/yellow color.. not sure whats going on.

Many medications make the water change color and can even permanently die your silicone. Usually its purple/blue though, I haven't experienced yellow myself.

Most of us do not like to use medications like this on puffers, they are very sensitive to chemicals because they have no scales.. they absorb everything through their skin very easily.

Do you know what's actually wrong with the puffer? Popeye is not a condition, its a side effect of the fish being sick, so you need to treat what is causing the fish to be sick in the first place. That might be a cycling tank, it might be a parasite.. do you know what all your levels are, etc?

My ammonia, and Nitrite are fine, the only other thing I've read about that could cause it if it's not bacterial is to many bubbles in the water from my power head. Do you think that could cause it.

It seems a lot better since we've started treating it

Did you try just using Melafix 1st?

i tested my nitrites again and they were really high (about .50- 1), so we did a water change again and the waters much clearer now.

Amm. and nitrites should always be 0. Some people will say my water is fine when their amm. is .25-.50 and nitrites are under .50. If that's the case then "no" the water is not fine. Not trying to be mean but I see it all the time.
Fine is a bad word here. We need exact numbers to help you. I'm glad you tested it again and posted the numbers. How is your ammonia? Is it 0? If you have nitrites showing your tank may be going through a mini cycle. Have you done what pufferpunk asked and tried Melafix before using Maracyn-two?

Sounds like the meds may have crashed your biofiter. Imagine that. Get on those water changes, you're going to be doing lots of them...