Parasite In Eye? Updated - Have Photos

[bithkits]

NEW MESSAGE:
SCROLL TO THE BOTTOM FOR PICS

OLD MESSAGE:
Hi. Please, i am begging for your help. I am losing a fish I have Had for 9 years

I have a Synodontis catfish( dont know which type exactly) - Appropriatly called Felix, like the cat. (dont ever name your fish, harder when you lose them)

He has a white ball between the skin covering his eye and the eye ball itself. It is almost as big as the eye ball. Please understand that this ball thing is inside the eye, and is not attached to the exterior of the fish.

It appeared over night. Upon research I found that it may be a case of an eye fluke infection, but a rare type - not over the outside of the eye as is normally the case, but within the eye.

the problem is that treatment is failing because the parasite is within the eye and protected by it.

Today the fish has been in this state for 5 days. I moved him into a 14 liter hospital tank. I added a general healer that i know and trust, as well as a quarter dosage of Methelyne blue (apparently it is too strong for scaleless fish). I added half a ml to the tank.

I am told the proper treatment for flukes is a 20-30min bath in 10mg Potassium permanganate per liter, but to use half that dosage for this scaleless fish. However it wont do anything as the parasite is lodged within the eye, i have been told. Is this true?

I have readied some equipment in case I need to perform a surgical operation:

Very fine needles and syringes(insulin type syringes)
Sharp pointed scalpel
doctors gloves
Potassium permanganate (measured out approx 60mg)

Please help me. Is surgery necessary? Should i try suck out the white ball or just make an incision to expose the parasite to the treatment?
Also, how in the world do I do this? on a wet towel? I have never done this before.
Any other Ideas on treatment?

I live in South Africa, so I can't really get the treatments you recommend, but i will try.

these are my details of the original tank(ALL OTHER FISH ARE PERFECTLY FINE):

Tank size: 200 litres
pH: ??
ammonia: ??
nitrite: ??
nitrate: ??
kH: ??
gH: ??
tank temp: 26-28' Celsius

Volume and Frequency of water changes:20% once a month

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: have used Bio-elite heal all something or other - general cure. did nothing at all.

Tank inhabitants: way too many types - i keep mostly single species of different catfish loaches eels pleco's etc...

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): none

Exposure to chemicals: none that i know of

Filters: 1x Fluval 104 and eheim internal as well as a small power head for circulation.

Digital photo (include if possible): I will try soon, all pics so far are blurry

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP! I NEED ALL I CAN GET!!!

 

[bithkits]

Here is a pic of the same kind of fish - http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/image.php?image_id=4802

it is a Synodontis eupterus

Upon closer inspection with a torch, the white ball seems to have a "stem" that extends into the pupil of the eye. not too sure, but looks like it.

And just wanted to say, this tank has been set up for a good couple of years with no major troubles....

 

[WILDER]

Parasites can attack organ on fish.
Is the ball hard looking of soft in the eye like filled with liquid.
You need an internal wormer, an external med not going to do anything.
Not sure what meds are available in africa.

 

[bithkits]

Thank you for your reply!

Ugh, last night at 2am I woke up to hear him flopping on the floor. He made his way out the hospital tank somehow
but he is okay now for now

the ball looks soft. it is defined as ball in shape, so I dont believe that it is a liquid within the eye. there seems to be empty space around it.

Please tell me more about this worming stuff! If you could tell me what it is then i could ask pet shops here what they have. the Medications here tend to be very primitive though. only for most common things like dropsy pop-eye ich etc etc...

Please give me the names of med's you would use and then ill try get them!

Thanks again for the reply!

 

[Rhiannon]

Personally I would not try and perform surgery myself. That is something a vet needs to do IMO.

Like your equipement could not be steralised properly, then you are going to cause more damage than what its worth. Also, you wouldnt have a clue what you are doing, you will make matter worse.

 

[bithkits]

@Rhiannon

the problem is that simply going to go for a consultation with a vet is going to cost me 8 times what the fish is worth and I dont have that kind of cash. And I know for a fact that he will only euthanise the guy.
there are only some Koi specialists here that I know of and they wont touch anything else.
I even went to an optomitrist I know personally for advice - she said if I use a tiny needle and dont cut the eye itself, only the skin covering the eye, then it should heal pretty quik and expose the parasite to treatment.

But surgery is only a last resort. right now I just want to find out if there are treatments available in South Africa that would work...

ignore this - (ag is daar nie tog iemand in blerrie SA wat weet watse goed ek vir hierdie vis kan gee nie? )

 

[WILDER]

You will need a wormer for flukes, camallanous worm, tape worms.

 

[bithkits]

thanks wilder! I'm gonna try get some good meds as soon as I can!

 

[WILDER]

Good luck.

 

[The-Wolf]

I've got three words for you
eye flukes; formalin

 

[bithkits]

I took some photos, this is the best I got. Also, as an update, the red veins you see have vanished and I am treating the fish with sterazin from Water life. This is the ONLY internal wormer and parisite med I could get here...

Thank you to all who have replied and supported me! I appreciate it so much! I'll let you guys know how it goes... Today is day 3 of the 10 day treatment


Hospital tank:

Main tank:

 

[bithkits]

@ Wolf

I said "internal wormer" to my lps

guy said "huh?"

I said "internal parisite"

guy said "External! yes we have that!"

I said "no, give me formalin!"

guy said "huh?"

I said "Nevermind"

this was the most knowlegable fish guy there... haha

 

[kewskills]

oh well there the experts (lfs maybe) luck with the treatment

 

[WILDER]

You will need a med that treat flukes.

 

[The-Wolf]

@ Wolf

I didn't realise you were in South Africa.
formalin is a 10% solution of formaldehyde in distilled water, so
perhaps in SA they just call it formaldehyde or formaldehyde solution or something similar.
if you can get hold of pure formaldehyde (used for embalming bodies)
then dilute it to a 10% solution [IE 10 per 100ml of water)

HTH