Popeye?

[laze]

OK -- a question for you betta experts (since you've been so helpful with my previous questions)... how can you tell if your betta has popeye?

Ours is in a ten gallon tank which we keep clean. We use aquarium salt and have been treating with Aquarisol (he had a bout with ich early on and we've used it as a preventative measure since then as well), but we've noticed a few things that seem strange to us...

First, his vision seems less than perfect... like he'll be swimming along at full speed until he bumps into the side... or he has trouble grabbing at his food.

Secondly, I noticed last night that his eyes seem a little more pronounced. It's not such a drastic difference that it's obvious there's something wrong, but while his eyes seemed mostly black before, I can see a definite lighter color around the outside. It's one of those things that if I were seeing a fish for the first time, it wouldn't look out of the ordinary, but on Moe, he looks different.

Here's a picture (the color around the eye looks red in the picture, but in person it looks more brownish):

Any thoughts? What's the best treatment (or is any even needed)? We're headed out of town for a couple of days... is it something that a.) may heal itself or b.) be alright until we get back?

He's been swimming around a fair amount and though he's eating a little less than normal (since it seems more difficult for him), he's still eating a pellet or two most mornings and nights.

 

[smpthy4thedevil]

hm, well, i'm pretty sure it isnt pop-eye. one of my bettas got pop-eye a week or two ago, and his eye looked like a balloon, sticking way out from his head

i'd certainly watch and see if they start bulging or anything, though. if they do, you'll want to go out and get some antibiotics or something...

melafix says on the bottle that it treats pop-eye, and it certainly wont hurt anything, so i'd suggest trying out for a few days and seeing if it helps.

how old is he? if he's over 2 years, it might just be that he's getting old, and his vision is starting to go. my friend has a fish she claims has cataracts -- i'm not sure if fish can have cataracts, but i do know that their vision can start to fail when they get older. if that's the case, there's nothing you can do.

 

[iloveyou]

could be white film on eyes... they have meds at wal mart for that (jungle fungus eliminator)

my bettas miss their food 1/2 the time too... not sure why tho

 

[laze]

We've only had him a couple of months, so I doubt he's very old...

He's looking a little sickly after our few days away, even though he seemed to be doing a little better right before we left. Some of his color is gone and under his chin area seems to be whiter than usual. We've also noticed a fuzz developing around the plants his tank as well as the heater. Not sure what that's about since we keep his water nice and clean.

We're going to take the plants out and see if that helps his sluggishness a bit... it's definitely puzzling. When he got ich shortly after we got him, it was one of those easy to diagnose things... some of these other illnesses where the symptoms seem to be "he's just not himself" are a lot tougher to figure out.

 

[smpthy4thedevil]

white fuzz? hmm, sounds like some sort of fungus or bacteria... i cant be sure...

i recommend emptying the tank and cleaning out all the plants (assuming they're fake, and if they're not, maybe replace the real ones with fake ones so you can clean them), the tank, the heater, the gravel, etc. with hot water and salt. that may help, and if it doesnt, at least you'll know it wasnt some sort of fungus/bacteria/whatever living in your gravel/on your decor/etc, and anyway it cant hurt. and make sure to do more-than-adequate water changes, and add plenty of salt, some of that stress coat stuff, and some melafix.

if that doesnt work, well... i'm not quite sure what to tell you if the fish starts getting any of the white fuzz on it, you'll need to look at a disease chart and find out the proper stuff to medicate him.