The Puffer Forum

Hi!
I seem to have run into a problem with a balloon green terror that I bought at the LFS a few days ago. Yesterday, after I added the last two fish for the tank, I noticed one eye on the GT slightly larger and cloudier than the other, and immediately recognized it as popeye. I know that popeye can be the result of multiple factors, so I decided to keep a close eye on the issue.
After waking up this morning, determined to fix this, what appeared to be a mild abrasion last night turned into a gaping hole on the side of his face. He seems to hang out at the top more, but is otherwise acting normal. My concern is infection and eventual death. What do I do?
He is a 2.5-inch balloon green terror, and is housed with a 8-inch banded leporinus (who I know can be nasty, and could very well have caused this), a 1-inch Jack Dempsey, a 2-inch parrot cichlid (brand new) and a 3.5-inch turquoise severum (also brand new), all in a 60 gallon aquarium, which was cleaned recently.
Help would be much appreciated. I’ll post some pics as soon as I can. I don’t know how long I have to help him if there is a problem, and he was quite expensive, too.
Happy new year!

Sorry some are upside down

Any fish, especially ones that tend to be aggressive, may cause an injury.
After that, the aggressor or any of the other fish may pick at it relentlessly.
About all you can do at this point is quarantine the injured fish & treat with melafix or pimafix, or whatever else is appropriate.

Thanks! I knew from the start that putting anything with the leporinus was a gamble. I’d say he has a 50-50, seeings he’s acting relatively normal, but has a huge and vulnerable hole in his face. It’s a shame, seeings everything I was told said that he’d do fine with everything else.

I’ll definitely try to quarantine it. Is it possible the popeye can spread? It’s weird that it happened so fast, when it seemed like nothing. The leporinus used to be with a piranha (which taught it to be so territorial), and got its eye bitten, too. Of course, it healed, and even half blind is the king of the tank. Me only fear is how relentless everything else is to the GT.

How long does it take for a Jack or a Leporinus to bite out an eye, no time at all.
If it's damage inflicted by other fish, it's not popeye.
As I said before, a damaged fish will be picked on by the others.
And the injury may lead to infection.
For the sake of the fish, get it out of there.

IFit's popeye, it's from an infection and is probably contagious.
Get it out of there.

On its second day half-blind, the GT is learning to survive. Unfortunately, I do not currently have a separate tank to put him in, but I’ve been keeping an eye on the matter. I put melafix in the tank to avoid infection. The only one that seems to pick on the GT is the parrot, but the GT bites back and swims away. I will monitor further behavior in its tankmates. Will the socket heal over or will there always be a large wound? The other fish seem to notice the impairment.
The green terror is eating, swimming, and chasing others around normally, but seems on high alert. The only thing it gets along with is the severum.

What size tank is this?

This is a 60 gallon aquarium, but it is a balloon green terror, so has plenty of swimming room.

SAPpyPuffer wrote: ↑Thu Jan 02, 2020 9:37 am This is a 60 gallon aquarium, but it is a balloon green terror, so has plenty of swimming room.

Thanks, sorry I missed that in your opening post.
I'd say that you have an overstocked tank full of aggressive fish.
I just spent 5 minutes on "google" to determine that.
There may be "plenty of swimming room", but the stress level & "territoriality" must be over the top, and most of these fish are still small.
As most of them will grow (normally) to 6-8 inches, putting them together in a 60 gallon tank is only the very beginning of the disaster that is to come.
Sorry to be so adamant about this, but a few minutes of research would have gone a long way here.
The LFS is there to sell fish, and all the stuff that you will buy as things go wrong along the way.
The more that goes wrong, the more you will spend.
Typically, they won't warn you or try to convince you that what you have in mind is the wrong thing to do.

Thanks! I couldn’t agree more.
I thought hard on what would work well together, and after a few months of research, decided what to do. The only problem is really the competition for territory, as you put it. The leporinus used to be in an entirely separate tank. Then it got moved into the “aggressive” tank as it got bigger, with a red belly piranha. Then, the piranha died (of random cause) and the leporinus had quite some time being the only one in the tank. Now, it isn’t quite happy, with others in the tank.
I did do more than enough research on what should work.
I think the real problem that I failed to see was that live fish work differently than what every person and book tells me should work.
I tend to overstock tanks (one of my flaws) but I made sure that I wasn’t just falling for the lfs’s tricks. I did go in wanting a gt, but the normal ones (6 in) would have killed the jack. The guy there did suggest a whole bunch of full grown 100 dollar fish, I wasn’t gonna make those mistakes considering the Leporinus could just as easily kill them.
I really do have the best interest for all my fish at heart and want it to work out where I don’t have to get rid of or lose any of my fish.

Update: everything’s doing great! The terror is now swimming around normally, and his eye socket has filled out with flesh. The melafix treatment is working. As far as overstocking goes, I knew it could be a problem before I put in the severum and parrot, but made sure to get females (seeings they get smaller).
Thanks for your help!

Good news! What are your plans to upgrade?

I’m not too sure yet. I don’t have space for a bigger tank, but I do have a 60 gallon semi-aggressive tank that I can move the severum into if space becomes an issue.