Popeye... need help

[cjconcepcion]

So while i was at petsmart today i happened to notice a very beautiful crowntail betta, that happened to have popeye. i showed it to the manager and she let me have him for free. i bought some maracyn to treat it with, but the dosage is one packet for 10 gallons of water..... i do plan to divide one of my current ten gallon tanks to put him in once he gets better. but i dont know how to dose out this medication and treat him in the hospital tank he's in. right now he is in a heated 1 gallon bowl with water that has been conditioned and has aquarium salt added. i dont really know how to proceed from here :/ how much do i give him? how do i measure it out? and can i leave the heater in the tank when i add the maracyn? help!

[cjconcepcion]

can i just take like.. a pellet sized pinch and put it in there? i dont have anything that will measure weight in milligrams.... but i dont want to overdose him either

[cjconcepcion]

okay i got an idea... can i pour the entire packet into one gallon of water... take 1/10ths of that gallon (being 1 3/5 cups)... and add a fresh gallon of water to that.... and get the same concentration?

[WiggleSwim]

Originally Posted by cjconcepcion

So while i was at petsmart today i happened to notice a very beautiful crowntail betta, that happened to have popeye. i showed it to the manager and she let me have him for free. i bought some maracyn to treat it with, but the dosage is one packet for 10 gallons of water..... i do plan to divide one of my current ten gallon tanks to put him in once he gets better. but i dont know how to dose out this medication and treat him in the hospital tank he's in. right now he is in a heated 1 gallon bowl with water that has been conditioned and has aquarium salt added. i dont really know how to proceed from here :/ how much do i give him? how do i measure it out? and can i leave the heater in the tank when i add the maracyn? help!

My beta also has popeye and I bought Maracyn II for him. If Maracyn is administered in doses like Maracyn II, I would just use proportions to get the right amount. So, say for instance it is asking you to 2 packets per 10 g of water on the first day and 1 packet each day after that. You say you are using a 1 g bowl? I have a 2.5 g tank with only that one beta in it, so I also had to do the math. It's not accurate since there aren't really measurement units, but try this:

2 packets/10 g water=x packets/1 g water
2 packets/10 g water=0.20 packets/1 g water

every day after that is 0.1 packets. Now this is hard to really know how much that is. I sort of divided the packet into parts, first half, then quarters. Draw some lines on the packets and that could help visually with the measurements. If the Maracyn does't work, like the Maracyn II it didn't for me, try epsom salt. I just added it to my tank, so I don't have results yet. hoping it works!

lol I hope what I said even helps.

[cjconcepcion]

i ended up using this dosage...

Originally Posted by Sakura8
Get a 1 gallon jug and fill with 5 cups of dechlorinated water. Add the dosage of one med and mix well. Now pour 1/2 cup of medicated water per gallon into the hospital tank. Since your tank is 1 gallon, pour in 1/2 cup of medicated water. Get a second jug and repeat with the second medication.

he dosent look too good though. i hope i can save him, hes a very beautiful fish. just wondering the meds wont mess up the heater or anything right?

[WiggleSwim]

OK. Oh, poor baby. :( I hope he does get better. IDK the medicine should mess up the heater or anything. Maracyn II didn't do anything to mine, although it's so warm in my house I don't have the heater turned on.

[BlueStar]

Hiya Austin, my favorite town from the old days.
This may come in handy next time or even now:
I did a search on Maracyn-2 last night because I have some coming in.
Manufacturer said use the full amount, so I guess after opened it doesn't have a shelf life.
Best use I came up with was this:
1 pkg/10 gallon
Put 10 tbsp treated water into a container.
Add 1 medication package to it and dissolve it real good.
Then add 1 tbsp of this mixture for each gallon of water being treated.
Day 1 says use a double dose use 2 tbsp for each gallon of water being treated.
Throw away the unused medication mixed up.
It still saves on the number of packages you would use the first day.
Do 100% water changes daily no matter what the box says with the new mixes at only 1 tbsp of this mixture for each gallon of water being treated for the number of days needed.

Note Aq. Salt will irritate it and make it worse, you have to get the swelling down before you use it.
I have been using the Epsom salt method and got this just in case the ES didn't work. Finally at day 7 of that his left eye that was worse than his right eye is about the same size as the right eye is and he is moving it around thus looking with it. Before that it stayed kind of fixed. Epsom salt talks excess fluid out of the body thus the reason it brings the swelling down, but it has to be changed out 100% daily also or it becomes a problem.

Popeye has many causes so here is my shorthand notes on it:
It is a symptom, not a disease in itself and has many possible causes
Can be difficult to cure if source unknown.
Origin can range from bacterial, viral, parasitic or
dirty water=meaning high nitrate/ites, ammonia, etc.
Can be symptom dropsy & also associated with Ich or injury
1 eye usually trama based such as run into plant or something bump him
(if panic at clean time could have smacked eye into something)
Both eyes tends to be more infection based via bacteria in water
One or both eyes appear be protruding abnormally, "popping" or stick out=bacterial infection.

Eye rupture clean water EVERY DAY would be best mainly because of infection--I would do a search and post asap if that happened to decide if Epsom should be changed over to Aq. Salt and exactly how to do that accilmating the fish to the change safely.

Treatment:
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=73333

[WiggleSwim]

BlueStar, how long should it take before ES shows any results? And I'm going to need to change 100% tomorrow then and not 25-50%. O__O Is 7 days the norm? I also have this problem with my betta currently and nothing much has changed and this is day 2.

[BlueStar]

I don't know it's my first time treating popeye on top of he also had SBD & maybe had/has dropsy (no bloat now but gray on his belly).
Yes with ES you need 100% changes daily. Think I read it's harmful if you don't do 100%, but don't hold me to it.
From what I've read you don't treat with ES past 10-14 days before you do gradual water changes to get the ES out without adding anymore in. If my notes are right it says: every 15 minute for 1st hour change 50% of the water to get them acclimated to ES or tannins and I suspect the same goes when removing them though tannins are good for them all the time and help prevent problems if the leaves are not boiled. Then the next day every day you do 100% water changes while they are having problems.
Think one poster said longer than 10-14 days of salts start to harm their kidneys and even after you remove the salt it takes 7 days for it to work out of their systems.

The top sticky has the treatment info for popeye in Part 2.
Another post I think said you should see results in 7 days which is how long it has taken for mines eyes to be about normal size again. One eye went down pretty much by the 4th day but his worse one it has taken 7 days for it to get the same size as his other one. Compared to my oldest betta's eyes this ones eyes are either back to normal or near normal now. So ES in my case did take a lot longer than I thought it would to get the swelling down.

Most of my info I've gathered from searches and it seems no one can help me with my own post. I'm terrible at doing searches also since I get tons of non-related posts to cut through.

[WiggleSwim]

I know the sticky post you posted said it was ok to use medicine and ES at the same time. I wonder should I use the Maracyn II again (second time) and the ES or what? I'm scared and don't want him to lose an eye.