popeye cure

Wow, what a coincidence. My downstairs neighbors flame got it just last week and I had to find the cure.

Advice from my LFS was to do a freshwater dip for 1-2mins. Make sure it is RO water, PH and Temperature adjusted to match the tank. He also said you could use Aquarium Pharmaceuticals PimaFix but usually the freshwater dip is enough to solve the problem. It seemed to in my neighbors case anyway.. catching the fish was the hardest part.

It is caused by a bacteria infection in the eye.

Could still be an infection. I would definatly try the FW dip first, and try and get some medication soon. He could have fin rot or something else as opposed to being beat up. Get some Melafix and Pimafix and setup a small hospital tank if you can. Shouldn't be more than $40 for a 5-10g tank and meds.. about the same price as the fish. You could also try Ruby Reef HydroPlex instead of the others meds it seems. I have no personal experience with any of them so I can't offer much advice about them.

I've always read that removing fish from possible further irritation and other fish pecking and letting time work its magic is the best way to help the fish. I'm actually not a fan of FW dip either. It is not always caused by infection. Can be physical trauma. Yes, a bacterial infection can result from that.

From my readings, it appears that if it's just one eye that's popped, then it's probably from physical trauma (one of my clowns had this for a few days in QT). If it's both eyes, then it's probably time to start medicating. Personally, I treated him with melafix, but I think it was just time to heal that helped him. At the time, the 2 clowns were figuring out who was dominant. Maybe that's what decided the battle

Wow, great photos of the process. You can definately see it helped remove what looks like some nasty parasites.

Such a great looking Flame, hope he gets better now.