What should I do?

[Smile_013]

My betta fish looks like his eyes are going to pop out of his head what should I do?

[bettaboy]

Your betta has "Popeye". Most bettas will make a full recovery, but if you don't treat it he could loose an eye.

Do a 90% water change every other day. Then, put the antibiotic Ampicillin in his home. Ever after his eyes go to normal, keep treating him for another week.

GOOD LUCK!

[stephenmontero]

i agree with bettaboy it sounds like popeye and u should treat but is he alone in the tank or are there tank mates cause if thats the case u might not want to treat him in that tank with the other fish move him in to a tank by himself and make the water about 80 i am hoping u have a heater? the warmer it is the easier for him to recover

[okiemavis]

Whoa guys! You're getting way ahead of yourselves! It's very irresponsible to diagnose a fish without knowing anything about the tank. For instance, a major cause of popeye is water quality problems! Many drugs, including ampicillin can be very dangerous to add to water with anything less than pristine conditions.

What we need before we can properly diagnose is some more information. Could you read this link give us the information it asks for?

http://www.fishforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=882

[bettaboy]

Hence, the change 90% of water every other day.

Its either Popeye, or tuburculosis

[okiemavis]

Pop-eye is not an actual disease, rather a symptom. It is caused by a wide range of things, TB being one of them. Therefore it can be pop-eye AND tb, it's not an either or situation.

Other causes of pop-eye are bacterial infection, parasites, poor water quality, metabolic disorders or nutritional problems (to name the ones I know off the top of my head).

Yes, 90% water changes are a good suggestion, but if water quality is the cause, what happens when the pop-eye goes away and he stops doing those water changes? What if there are nitrites or high level of nitrates in the tap water that is causing the water quality issue? Frequent water changes would only make the situation worth. If water quality isn't the issue, then the extreme water changes will only serve to further stress the fish.

Please understand, information is the most important tool to accurately diagnosing an illness. There is far more harm in jumping to conclusions than there is in gathering more information.

[bettaboy]

Actually, popeye can only be caused by 2 things, TB or a bacterial infection

[okiemavis]

I'm sorry, but what are your sources for this? I'm afraid to say that you are mistaken. Here's a few articles on pop-eye that you may want to read.

"Pop-eye: As it's name suggests pop-eye can be recognised quite easily because the eye swells and stands proud from it's socket. Dramatic as this looks if the cause is fixed the eye will return to normal, often with no treatments being used. There is more than one cause for this symptom. It can be caused by a bacterial infection or simply through the fish being kept in a poor environment. By poor environment this could be poor water quality (ie. pollution) or the wrong water chemistry. Before resorting to an unnecessary course of treatment it is worth checking the fishes environment and correcting any issues there. If the environment remains poor then any treatment is likely to fail."
Andy Gordon
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.u...article_id=640



http://www.fishlore.com/aquariummaga...ish-popeye.htm
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article26.html