Betta Fish Forum banner

Pop-Eye Help

1K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  copperarabian 
#1 ·
I am very very new to Bettas, and at my office we have one whom I am very attached to. This morning, I changed his water as usual and a few hours later I noticed his left eye was cloudy and swollen! A coworker said this was called "pop-eye", and when I google image searched it I found she was likely right. The guy at the fish store said to clean his water more and see if the swelling goes down, but all the websites say to treat with antibiotics immediately. I am confused and don't know what to do to help the poor little guy

My friend also on this forum said to include this.

Housing
What size is your tank? ...bigger than 2 gallons, that's all I know for sure
What temperature is your tank? slightly above room temperature
Does your tank have a filter? No
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? No, my boss won't spring for one
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Hikari Betta Bio-Gold. He's picky and refuses anything else.
How often do you feed your betta fish? Once a day, in the morning

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Every other day
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? I believe 75-95%? I don't always do them, my coworkers do too
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Water conditioner meant for bettas. I don't remember the brand.

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? No, I don't know how

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Just the swollen, kinda cloudy eye
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? It hasn't. Yet. I'm scared it will.
When did you start noticing the symptoms? This morning, around 11-ish
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Not yet, I just noticed it and didn't know what to do and was afraid I'd make it worse
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? Probably under a year, maybe a year
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Welcome to the forum....it sounds like he is getting pretty good care for an office fish.....and that is good...since it is just one eye involved it is most likely due to an injury...if he is otherwise acting his normal self and eating well.....I would do 100% daily water changes for 3 days and then continue the regular water changes you are doing to help prevent a secondary infection....if it gets worse or he has behavior changes or the other eye starts to swell it may be gas bubble related and full blown popeye and the best treatment I have found is Epsom salt 2tsp/gal and tannins along with 100% daily water changes for 10-14 days while in a small QT container floating in a heated tank to maintain a water temp of 76-77F range....this may be hard to do in the office especially if the office is closed on the weekends.....
Can you post a pic....
keep us posted....
 
#4 ·
Thank you everyone who replied. I don't work every day, so I talked to my coworkers who work the day I don't, and our fish has been getting his water changed much more dilligently - found out one coworker had not been putting the conditioner in! Do you think that could have been the cause?
Anyway, the fish seems much better. The swelling in his eye has gone almost fully down, incredible for only a couple days I think, but then again, I don't know a lot about bettas.
I'm gonna keep doing daily water changes at least until next week though, just to be sure.
 
#6 ·
Okay. So. He seemed to be doing better... then he got worse. In addition to the pop-eye, his bright blue colour has faded, and he's not as energetic as he normally is...
I convinced my boss to let me take him home. So I took him to copperarabian's house (We are close friends IRL), she has him in one of her 3 tanks with stuff added to the water to make him better... I don't know a lot about it; she can probably explain more.
 
#8 ·
I have him at my house now, his eye looks way better now than how Ksieznicka explained it looking the first day. I took some pictures for people to see.

I'm giving him 100% water changes everyday for 3 days(the water in the container is separated completely) like OFL said to do, added a little salt, and my aquarium is at 82 d
He's isn't lethargic , but I'm told he is usually much more active.

You can't really tell in the photos, but his eye is definitely a little bigger then normal.


 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top