# Popeye?? How to treat?



## Macheon7 (Mar 11, 2020)

Hello Everyone,
I just got home from a quick out of town trip (gone for 2.5 days). 
As usual, I checked on my tanks right after walking in the house. First tank...all good. Second tank... My betta there's an issue. While feeding him he only ate a couple of pellets and then I noticed Gilbert's left eye is swollen. 
He is in a 10 gallon planted tank with a couple of amano shrimp and MTS. The tank has been cycled for months and nothing abnormal seems to be going on. 
First thing I did was a full water check. PH normal, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites 5-10 nitrates. 
So I've been researching here and online for other causes and at this point I am assuming it's caused by physical trauma and not poor water quality, as I perform regular water changes (30% every other week) and do frequent water parameter checks via API Freshwater Master Kit.

So my question is how do I use epsom salts the right way or should I? 
I've never used salt of any kind in my tanks and I don't want to hurt any inhabitants (including the plants), but I want to make sure he heals up. This is the first sick fish I've had to deal with so far. 
I've attached a picture of his eye below and another picture of his whole tank, he is in there, just hiding in his favorite spot between the driftwood and stone.

Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!! 

Thanks, 
Dereck


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## bettafulaquatics (Aug 12, 2020)

If its only in one eye its likely because of injury. So i would do an epsom salt bath. 



 this is a pretty good video on how to do it


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## AndreaPond (May 2, 2020)

Also, even though your water parameters are good, I'd recommend a weekly water change, including vacuuming, as opposed to every second week.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

You can do a bath or a dip. With one, it is one teaspoon per gallon. Keep in this solution 24/7 with daily 100% water changes. Treat no more than 10-14 days. The other is one tablespoon per gallon. Leave him in this solution for no more than 10-15 minutes. Make sure to watch constantly for any sign of stress.

If you don't have a hospital tank you can attach a container to his aquarium.

I would consider adding moss or something to cover the ends of the tall driftwood. Very nice tank.


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## j.stylus (Sep 7, 2020)

i used microbe lift-artemiss after following the directions on the bottle all was well within a week. but used for 10 days as recommended on the bottle.


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## fatblonde (Apr 20, 2020)

j.stylus said:


> i used microbe lift-artemiss after following the directions on the bottle all was well within a week. but used for 10 days as recommended on the bottle.


Great looking tank! I'm curious as to what the light blue thing on the left is?


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## Macheon7 (Mar 11, 2020)

bettafulaquatics said:


> If its only in one eye its likely because of injury. So i would do an epsom salt bath.
> 
> 
> 
> this is a pretty good video on how to do it


Thanks! This video was super helpful and easy to follow. 
I ran out and got some epsom salt and trying out this method first. I'll try it nightly all week and keep a close watch on him.


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## Macheon7 (Mar 11, 2020)

AndreaPond said:


> Also, even though your water parameters are good, I'd recommend a weekly water change, including vacuuming, as opposed to every second week.


I was doing them weekly for about 4 months on both my tanks and saw little to no difference in water parameters. I read that since I understock my tanks, bi-weekly would be fine. After this though, I'll probably go back to weekly WC. Thanks


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## Macheon7 (Mar 11, 2020)

j.stylus said:


> i used microbe lift-artemiss after following the directions on the bottle all was well within a week. but used for 10 days as recommended on the bottle.


Thanks! I'll look this stuff up. I'm trying the nightly Epsom salt baths this week and if I don't see any improvement, I'll look at picking some of this up.


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## Macheon7 (Mar 11, 2020)

fatblonde said:


> Great looking tank! I'm curious as to what the light blue thing on the left is?


Thanks! It took my quite a while to find all the hardscape and out this one together.
Here's my other tank....both need a good trimming, but I know the fish and shrimp love the jungle and I kinda dig it too.










The blue thing is a small Penn Plax filter...I rescued some amano shrimp from my barbers gumball fish bowl and I placed it in there when I moved the shrimp over a couple of months back.
I left it in there for now to build up the beneficial bacteria on it as I plan on swiping the filter media to seed my new 5 gallon tank my kids bought me for my desk at work. It looks odd, but it'll be removed soon.
I just haven't figured out exactly what I want to do with the 5 gallon just yet.
But now with this going on, depending on if I have to use any meds in the tank...it may have been for nothing...
EDIT: I know the water level is low, I took this after I started draining the tank as I was planning to trim and this was going to be my "Before" picture...I generally keep them topped off.


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## Macheon7 (Mar 11, 2020)

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> You can do a bath or a dip. With one, it is one teaspoon per gallon. Keep in this solution 24/7 with daily 100% water changes. Treat no more than 10-14 days. The other is one tablespoon per gallon. Leave him in this solution for no more than 10-15 minutes. Make sure to watch constantly for any sign of stress.
> 
> If you don't have a hospital tank you can attach a container to his aquarium.
> 
> I would consider adding moss or something to cover the ends of the tall driftwood. Very nice tank.


Thank you! I am going with the epsom salt dip, nightly for now to see how it goes and then I'll go from there. 
I did have java moss I tried to attach and it just would take....there are a few spots where it stayed on, but I got to find something different. Any suggestions? Java moss just gets crazy too...in my other tank it got super thick and was a pain to keep trimmed, although I was running CO2 in that one, so that may have contributed to the craziness as well.


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## fatblonde (Apr 20, 2020)

Macheon7 said:


> Thanks! It took my quite a while to find all the hardscape and out this one together.
> Here's my other tank....both need a good trimming, but I know the fish and shrimp love the jungle and I kinda dig it too.
> 
> View attachment 1021351
> ...



I'm speechless!! That's absolutely gorgeous! Do you run CO2?


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## fatblonde (Apr 20, 2020)

fatblonde said:


> I'm speechless!! That's absolutely gorgeous! Do you run CO2?


I see your other comment about the CO2. Were you able to keep everything all cohesive when using the CO2, or was that set up before fish went in?


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## Macheon7 (Mar 11, 2020)

Just a quick update. 
I checked up on Gilbert after getting home tonight. 

His eye is still swollen, but it's pretty clear and he ate well, and he seems perkier tonight. So I'm going to skip the salt dip tonight and go again tomorrow. I'd rather not stress him, unless everyone thinks that's a bad idea, please let me know.

Thanks!


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

What you are doing is best for Gilbert. Dips can take a toll if used more than necessary. Observation will let you know if Gilbert needs more. There's really no set number of times for dips as there are for meds.

Glad he seems to be doing better.


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## Macheon7 (Mar 11, 2020)

RussellTheShihTzu said:


> What you are doing is best for Gilbert. Dips can take a toll if used more than necessary. Observation will let you know if Gilbert needs more. There's really no set number of times for dips as there are for meds.
> 
> Glad he seems to be doing better.


Thanks Russel. I was reading through some posts here and rest seemed to be more important based on some of what I've been reading.


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## Macheon7 (Mar 11, 2020)

Hey everyone! I just wanted to provide another update on Gillbert.
The swelling has started to go down and his beautiful blue eye is coming back. He's been acting normal over the last week or so and seems to be healing just fine.

Thanks again for all the advice and responses here. You guys rock!

Here's his eye today, still a little swollen, but so much better!


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## fatblonde (Apr 20, 2020)

Macheon7 said:


> Hey everyone! I just wanted to provide another update on Gillbert.
> The swelling has started to go down and his beautiful blue eye is coming back. He's been acting normal over the last week or so and seems to be healing just fine.
> 
> Thanks again for all the advice and responses here. You guys rock!
> ...



He looks great! Such a pretty blue eye! 😁


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## Melogrunty (Sep 15, 2020)

How many days of Epsom Salt dips you do before any noticeable reduction in swelling? Did you do them every other day? What size container are you using for bathing? What concentration of teaspoons or tablespoons per gallon? What was the duration of each bath? Can I just add the Epsom direct to the tank? I need to do this for my own fish. Glad to see so much progress!


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