popeye?

[Mr.Midas]

I found one of my red devil fry with a swollen eye last night and a couple hours later the eye had popped and he was swimming side ways. I had to "put it down" and now im concerned it might be popeye. Im going to pick up some treatment today, what should i get? Also, after i got looking i noticed a few white dots on a couple of the fish so i treated them for ich too.

[Mr.Midas]

bump

[mostlycichlids]

I don't understand...you said you put him down? Do you have pics? What are your water parameters? What is your maintnance schedule? Have you added anything new to the tank? What size tank and what inhabitants?

[Mr.Midas]

When i said :put it down" i meant kill it, but i just said it nicely, lol. Its a 15 gallon tank with about 30 red devil fry about an inch long each. Ive been doing 50% bi-weekly water changes but i think im going to switch to 25% weekly changes. I did add a pleco a few weeks ago and i didnt quarintine it, which is where i probably went wrong. Also, i know its a noob move, but i dont have any nitrate/nitrite tests, i just paid for school and im short on cash. The pH is 7.1 and the temperature is normally 76-78, but im increasing it to 80-82 incase it is ich. Any pictures i could take would be useless because they are still so small. I just want to know what to use to prevent it from spreading. I started treatment with tetracycline, in which the main ingredient is tetracycline hydrochloride.

[bumpylemon]

well first of all i think there is WAY to many fish in that tank. esp with the pleco. but without pics we cant know what it was. i had a fishes eye fallin out. (like a huge bubble) raised the temp did a water change 2 days later gone. i still have no idea what happened. 3 of my fish had it. no idea.

[Mr.Midas]

yeah, ive done one water change so far and raised the temp. Im giving them another dose of the tetracycline tonight and another water change tomorrow night. And the only reason they're in such a small tank is because they're less that half an inch long and rarely wander away from one another. Ill be dividing them into 3 seperate tanks soon: the 15 they're in now, an 18 and a 27.

[mostlycichlids]

The bioload is still huge for that tank. I would do 10-20% waterchanges daily on the tank. As far as the "ich" if it is Ich heat alone will alot of times kill ich I would get the temp up to 85 and keep it there. Add 3tbs per gallon over a few days and keep it at that level for 10 days. When you do your water changes add salt accordingly back to the tank. Fry need to be fed3-4 times a day and water needs to stay pristine.

[Mr.Midas]

ok, thanks for the advice guys :)

[mostlycichlids]

Oh and if you use the salt treatment you don't need to dose the meds. I would put carbon in your filter for 24hrs to remove meds before adding salt if you plan to go that route. Yopu can get the temp up in the meantime.

[Mr.Midas]

ok, well in that caes, since i started the med treatment ill probably finish the first dose...then try the salt thing.