The Puffer Forum

I woke up to this this morning... the eye.... people... the eye....
I mean I know he hadn't been feeling well but DANG.... I didn't predict his eyeballs would get sucked into his head...

I have never seen anything like that before and Google was no help. Hopefully someone here has experience with this and can advise on treatment. Good luck with the little feller!

What are your tank parameters? I am guessing a vitamin deficiency here. Try soaking your food in vitamins and varying more. What size of tank?

40 gals. I don't know the water parameters because the water is around 1.01 and I don't know whether to use a saltwater or freshwater test. But the tank is cycled, and I change the water out regularly.

He has been declining for a month or two. I've treated him with antibiotics and antiparisites. For the past month, all he eats is snails. He doesn't take bloodworms anymore. Might be the cause of the nutrient deficiancy (if that's what's causing it?)?

I was freaked out, I had never seen it before either. I am so discouraged and I feel so bad. I don't want to put him in the freezer, but I don't want him to die like this... don't imagine it feels too good having your eyeballs sucked into your head.

Never seen anything like it.

You may use all the FW tests except ammonia.

What's your water change schedule?

Anyone else having a problem getting Liz's picture(s)?

I have to agree with Lisalisa with the vitamin deficiancy here. I know its a long shot, but in the reptile realm, sunken eyes usually reffers to dehydration or vitamin deficiancy.

I did some more searches and found a couple of sites stating that sunken eyes in fish can be caused by bacteria and by vitamin deficiency. None of the sites provided any in-depth discussion, explanation or pictures though. At the very least, I would try varying the diet and soaking the foods in vitamins.

I have not seen that before either - most behind-the-eye infections lead to the opposite effect (popeye), but post-infection the eye(s) may sink. Some deficiency does seem most likely as in starved catfish and some cichlids, but that is only after l_o_n_g starvation and/or loss of gut flora. Were any of the traetment broad-spectrum antibiotics or combos which would give broad-spectrum effect together? And if so, did that precede the eye symptoms or follow them?

Do have any idea how old the fish is?

Well, it's hard to say... luckily though his eyes went back down (or rather, up). I had added salt the day before, and I guess I raised his salinity too much too fast for him to acclimate or something... so I took some tubing and had a line running from his tank to my window, emptying his tank, and I took the hose and I set it on a gentle leak and put it in his tank (ocasionally adding dechlorinator to the tank)... a bit risky wit the chlorine I guess but I figured it was the best way to gradually lower the salinity. So over about 6 hours I got him from 1.012 to 1.008. He seems a bit better today - his eyes are better atleast. Another thing I realized is probably the culprit for his decreasing health is that I add salt directly to the tank... I've always done it since I never add more than like a cup at a time, and I have had a hard time in the past trying to dissolve it in a gallon jug. I think that could probably be hurting him though. I will definately stop that. I need to get one of those IV-like drip systems to change the salinity.... I don't think I have the persistance or the patience to do it myself

Good news. When increasing salinity, do so with water changes. Easier to test and dissolve.

Lisa is right. Raise (slowly) the SG during water changes by adding replacement water with slightly higher SG than the water in the tank. If your SG is 1.008 and you want to raise the SG by .001, remove 50% of the tank water and use replacement water with SG of 1.010. Very easy!

BTW, I agree that you should never add marine mix directly to the tank. Mix with water in a bucket, aerate overnight and add to the tank the next day.

I'm w/ybenormal on salt addition.

Liz,
Any chance some undissolved salt may have settled on him while resting/sleeping? Otherwise,
I'm with the others about slow salinity changes using dissolved salt.

Could he, as a result of the undissolved salt, just have got hugely dehydrated, thus causing the sunken eyes.
I mean, if he goes into an area where the denser saltwater and partially undissolved salt is, he's been (don't mean this horribly) dessicated?
Glad to hear he's doing better, but just in case it's a nutritional deficiency, go ahead with some vits.
Hope he carries on improving.
Pami.