Glass eye Tetra's Eye all red and bulging

[jmottle]

This week is just going well or my tank. Last week my small red eye/glass eye tetra started to lose balance and any control to keep himself righted and later died ,now my large red eye/glass eye has one eye that is almost all red (the same color as the small red highlight above their eyes normally) and it bulged out.

I'm worried that there is something in my tank that is causing all this, but I don't know what it is. (water readings are all normal) Worse yet I don't have a hospital tank so if there is something wrong then I have to treat the entire tank.

Right now I have a 10 gallon planted tank with a zebra danio, 3 Serpae Tetras and a large red eye/glass eye tetra.

Any help or suggested would be greatly appreciated. I thought it might be pop-eye, but nothing in this article other than the bulging eye met all of the criteria for this disease. (http://www.aquamaniacs.net/popeye.html)

If I treat with Maracyn-Two or kanamycin how will this affect my other possibly healthy fish?

Thanks,
Jeff

[yashinfan]

Since your tank is planted, I would try and start with a more natural remedy (Melafix) and see if that does anything at all. If not, you should try and remove your plants and keep them alive while you medicate your tank. And, unrelated to your problem, you should keep danios in at least a group of 3, or else they will be stressed out.

[jmottle]

Thank you yashinfan, I've just started a Melafix treatment. I was not aware that medications affected plated tanks, so thanks for that as well.

My Zebra Danio has a funny story. My friend purchased feeder fish for his tank and gave me a few of these tiny fry to put in my tank. He thought they were food and I thought they were new additions to my tank. In the morning they were all gone except for one. He had outsmarted my Giant Danio who had taken to eating the rest. The zebra spent much of his time hiding until he got bigger at which time the Giant allowed him to swim around as long as he did not get in his way. The zebra became most adept at swimming with the Giant, but out of sight so he did not know. ;-) Unfroutunately one day my Giant jumped out of the tank in the night though a hole I would never have assumed a fish could get though. I replaced him with other fish, but my Zebra now runs the tank and keeps everyone in their place. He is moody so somtimes the other fish can swim where ever they want and other times he chases them back to their spots. He had lead a very hard life, narrowly being eating and chased by the Giant danio, getting stucck and nearly dieing when he got trapped on the filter intake and a bout of mouth fungus when I introduced new fish to the tank. He still has battle scars from that incident and is a bit bent but he still swims actively. We named him Rocky. ;-)

Thanks again for the advice...I hope it helps as I hate seing my fish in pain.

Jeff

[MelJr]

I have a lemon tetra that seems to have the same thing your fish had. I was wondering if the treatment worked?

[jmottle]

Yes I did treat with Melafix, but oddly his eye had started to get better even before I started the treatment and was gone by the next morning. He went from a bulging eye that was almost completely blood red to nothing in the course of 24 hours. Unfourtunately he and 3 of my other fish all died within the following week from some sort of bladder problem. They had no outward signs of any problems and all of a sudden they have dificulty keeping ballanced. WIthin 3 days they die. Some thought it may have been Neon Tetra disease. I now have only 3 fish left. I honestly don't know how it all happened as the water quality and chemistry never changed and I had not added new plants or fish for over 6 months. I'd sure love to know what happened as I don't want it to happen again.

[MelJr]

Sorry to hear your fish died :( . My fish that has it lost his balance last night and hasn't gotten any better. We don't have a LFS here and our WalMart doesn't stock Melafix. Thanks for the quick response

[MelJr]

The lemon tetra that was sick is now eating with the other fish. He seems to be back to normal. I figured he was a goner when I saw that bulging eye and swiming upside down. I didn't turn the lights on much after he got sick so the other tetras wouldn't pick on him.

[MelJr]

Well the Lemon Tetra that had the bulging eye was ok for a couple of weeks but he got it again and died :(

[yashinfan]

Mel Jr: Melafix won't help problems with swim bladder, it's for healing fungus and opened wounds. I recommended it for the eye of the fish. It sounds like your fish has popeye and dropsy. That's a serious problem and needs medications. Go check at Walmart for meds that claim to heal those problems. Good luck!