Help! Does my Melanochromis Joanjohnsonae Have eye condition or just deformed?

[vanpudin]

I just noticed that my melanochromis joanjohnsonae has one eye or eye socket larger than the other. It seems the socket of one eye is a little swollen. This is most noticeable when i'm close up to the fish and lookin in front of it. I didnt notice it intill now. It's a small fish still so it could of been like that before. Ive had this fish maybe 2 weeks. The fish is swimming around fine like the others. The eye socket is not discolored, just puffed alittle maken the eye appear to stick out more. Should i Quaritine this fish and buy some medicine? I only have a bucket to put it in. Ive never treated a fish before.
Could this just be a deformady? I tried to take afew pics but they come out blurry as the fish is small and moves fast. Here are some.
These pics really dont help any.

[vanpudin]

Heres a pic that shows eye puffed. That pic may exajerate the eye alittle if i made any since.

[vanpudin]

Not sure what to do. Should i do more frequent water changes for awhile? Would this lesson the chance of sickness spreading? All other fish in tank seem fine. Maybe i can find a common medicine. If can't find the recepit for the fish. Worse case cenario, if it gets real bad, should i put it out of its misery? I dont want to spend alot of money getting a fish to heal when i spent $3.99 for it. Maybe its a deformidy.

[vanpudin]

Just found the receipt. I've had the fish too long to return it. I'll give it alittle more time to get worse, then mabe put it down.

[vanpudin]

Just bought melafix from store. My friend said it cured one of his fish with pop eye. Hopefully it will help they eye. At leat the melafix should help prevent other fish from getting pop eye.
So would the worse case cenario be that the fish loses one eye, so the eye dies and falls off? Not familer with pop eye intill now.

[vanpudin]

Yea, didnt mean to panic on this thread.

[mee-mee]

Here is one site about pop eye...
http://www.fishjunkies.com/Diseases/popeye.php

and another site...
http://www.fish-tank-guide.com/Popeye-Fish-Disease.html

and yet another site...
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwpopeyefaqs.htm

hope one of them helps ya out...and the eye could very well pop out. And if it does, then the hole will heal and a scar will form over the eye socket...

[mee-mee]

We actually thought one of our cobalts got Pop Eye, but he ran into one of the rocks and scraped his cornia, and now he is blind in that eye. So we are not worried, he was and is being chased alot by the older cobalt blue. But, our one-eyed cobalt is doing just fine. Hope ya get the pop eye remedy taken care of....

[vanpudin]

Thanks for responding and the help.

[Coler]

Test your water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.

Pop-eye is caused by poor water conditions, especially high nitrates (malawis are very intolerant of this) and remedied by correcting this.

I would say it is unlikely to be pop-eye because one eye only is affected - more likely to be a soft tissue injury caused by collision with decor/fighting.

As always, keep your water parameters pristine and he will be good as gold. The melafix will help too.

btw, is that a tiger barb in the first pic - the stripey guy ? not a good combination with rift lake cichlids and prefers to be in groups of 6 or more.

[vanpudin]

Thanks for the advise. Yea i know, the tiger barb been in their for some time now. It holds its own for now. I know since the barb is by itself it naturally wants to chase others. But, it's mixed with africans so i'm not worried yet. As my africans grow i'll eventully move it.
Since the eye is not cloudy and now treating with melafix, is that a good sign that it may not fall off?
I'm not sure, but not sure if i can do water change while just starting medicine.

[Star_Rider]

pop eye is a catch all term .
it can be related to physical injury , poor water quality and bacteria infection.

it can affect one or both eyes.

the best treatment is to keep the water clean, the use of antibiotics may work..and or pima/mela fix(used as preventative steps.)

the fish can actually lose the eye and survive. so don't put it down.

[vanpudin]

If the fish lost the eye at a young age, will the eye socket cover up, or leave a crater?
Already started to use melafix today. Should i wait for a week to change some water out. The instructions make it sound like i need to change 25% after 6 days i think. Just in case i removed my 2 paradise gouramies for a while as sometimes i've read these meds. tend to have diff. reactions with fish like betta, and gouramies which breath air above water. Something to do with laybrith organ. Dont know if spelled right. Who knows if this is true though. I know blue paradise gouramies prob. should not be mixed with africans, but it's been workin so far. When the dosage of meds. is reduced i'll put them back as the gouramies are in with other small, less aggressive fish now they dont belong with. Anyway this is a diff. issue.
Thanks for the help...