Air bubble eyes, not swimming much, HELP!

[FishFaceMartin]

I noticed last night that one of my four female bettas, Ellie, is having a really hard time getting food. She obviously wanted it since she nipped at the others when they stole it from in front of her, but she never seemed to notice the food before they got to it. It's not weird for one fish to try and hog most of the food, but I dropped so many pieces directly in front of Ellie and she couldn't get them! I started to worry so watched her for a while afterwards. She wasn't swimming nearly as much as she usually does, although when she did swim it was obvious that she still could and that there was nothing wrong with her fins. Then when she turned I noticed that one eye looked bulged out, like it had an air bubble in it. The other eye looked mostly normal but I'm not sure. I compared her eye to the other fish, and none of them have it!

Ellie is a very, very good jumper. I have them in a ten gallon on top of a dresser. Usually I leave the lid to the hood open all the way while I feed them, and a few weeks ago she jumped all the way out, landed on a boot on my floor, and flopped around for a while. I freaked out and it took me a little bit to catch her and put her back in. She seemed fine afterwards, though. The next time I did a water change I lowered the water level and I made sure when I fed them that I only opened the hood lid just enough to fit my fingers in, but it happened once more!

Could this have been the cause of her sickness? And what exactly is wrong with her? How can I treat it? Can my other fish catch it? Should I put her in her own bowl?

Thank you so much for any answers!

[JamieTron]

Air bubbles eh. Does she have any bubbles anywhere else on her body? Bubbles in a he eyes of fish and under the skin are a common symptom of nitrogen poisoning. When your water becomes supersaturated with gases it causes a tendency to form gas bubbles in the membranes of a fishes body...such and the gills and eyes. These gas bubbles can be deadly if left untreated as they start to form in the blood stream causing embolisms (blocking body vessels). They may appear to be lethargic and to be gasping for air with this disorder.

Now you can try very frequent water changes to reduce the nitrogen gas level in the water. It isn't always ammonia that people should be worried about as small fish are very prone to this disorder.

This information was from my fish health class so it is accurate; however, I cannot say if this is whats wrong with your fish for sure as I have not seen your fish. Changing your water can decrease this disorder, and is worth the try. Try changing the water daily for a week or so.

If no improvement occurs you should look into a disorder called pop eye due to infection (sometimes pop eye can occur from gas build up but it should also go away with extra water changes, if not it's prob infection). This can be caused by a bacteria and should be treated with antibiotics.

If it is gas bubble disease your fish can get this disorder exposed to high nitrogen levels...if pop eye I would guess the bacteria is probably contagious.

[ChristinaRoss]

can u test ur water?