Popeye/finrot and Maracyn

[Leopardess]

Ok, I'm beginning to think it's something in the water around here that has suddenly changed and disagrees with my fish:rolleyes:

Last week I found a cory with popeye in my 55g planted. I took him out (thinking it was some wierd fluke) and put him in a hospital tank. Yesterday my dwarf gourami looked like he had it too, so I took him out too and moved him to a separate hospital tank. Tonight I look over and what do I see? Another cory with popeye.

I'm getting really upset about this. I have no clue what is causing this. All my parameters are right on track (nitrates 10ppm, no ammonia or nitrite, pH on target). Nothing in my routine has changed and other than this everything else is fine.

Does the water have to be poor in quality for fish to develop popeye?

Also, I'm thinking I'm just gonna dose the whole 55g with Maracyn Plus. I don't want to spend hours catching a cory here a gourami there. It took me 50 minutes to get the first cory out because all of the plants were in the way. Maracyn won't harm the plants or biological filter will it? It doesn't say on the bottle...If its gonna either hurt my plants or mess with my bacteria I guess I'll have to keep taking individual fish out.

Any thoughts or suggestions or anything?

[Must4ng s4lly]

I have used Maricyn in my 58 gal and it affected the bio filter very little. It seemed to affect the plants just a bit too, but they bounced back after the water change....

I think if you keep noticing the popeye, treat the whole tank and kill it off! I think (I just did this last week) chasing the fish all through the plants and stuff really upsets the fish too. I have one that is permanently neurotic now cause I chased her around the tank for 30 mins and kept her in a tiny hospital tank all week. When I put her back into the regular tank, she is very skittish and freaky. Esp when I walk by the tank.

I wish you the best with the popeye and curing it! I have found the best thing of all is jumping on a problem as soon as you see it take care of it like you are doing.....

[TKOS]

My gourami had it and I treated a planted tank. I actually left the lights off for the treatment period as well and didn't feed them. Maracyn says not to do any water changes so I didn't want the water getting too fouled up with excess waste and it is only 5 days.

When I was reading about popeye it said that sometimes air bubbles can actually get caught under the eye. Don't know the validity of it but interesting to read. For my gourami I think it was fumes coming from the fairly new lighting fixture that my dad had painted. Another week of airing out and the Maracyn and no more popeye.

[Leopardess]

Okay, thanks.

TKOS - It didn't bother your plants at all? Or your bacteria?

The last thing I want is a minicycle when my little celebes are in there!:shake:

[TKOS]

No. I tested for ammonia every day and there was no spike at all. I just dropped in the tabs and let them fizz away. I tried to drop them in at avrious spots in the tank to get the meds spread out more. The plants got a bit more algae on them due to the lights being turned out but this was kept low with no feeding. After the last treatment was over I did a big 50% water change and have been doing lots of water changes since to make sure to keep the water as good as possible.

If you are really worried you could take out some filter media and feed it in another tank with pure ammonia or something (rotting food will work as well). But I never had to do that.

[Leopardess]

Ok thanks:)

This is the bottled Maracyn plus. Last night I added some to my the planted hopsital tank that the gourami is in and all is well so far (granted, its been less than a day lol but the plants haven't all melted yet;)).

Thanks for the help guys.