purple firefish acting weird

[Greefer]

My purple firefish recently started acting weird. It has refused food for at least 3 days now and hides alot. The eye's look a little weird. The best way to describe it is that the eyes look a little swollen or pooching out on the bottom half of the eyeballs. I don't know what caused it. It has started wandering around the bottom of the aquarium tank and it has never done that before. It used to just swim in one spot in a stream created by the powerhead.

I do notice a small patch of Xenia looking a little sickly, I think my urchin ran over it. The other patches of Xenia look fine. The other animals are also acting completely fine. My last 20% water change was barely two weeks ago.

[Ronjunior]

I would check that all water parameters are in check. Not eating and eyes like that could be infection though.
You might check http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/ to see if anything follows what you're seeing, good luck.

[impur]

Sounds like popeye or something similar. Can you get the fish out and into QT?

[Greefer]

Thanks for the quick replies. It is probably popeye. The fish looks like it has been blinded since it can't see food drifting by. It does respond to light still though.

[impur]

Get it into QT and treat there. This infection is pretty easy to beat with the right meds.

[SeanF]

I would also treat with some sort of anti parasitic med in addition to the antibiotic because more than likely some type of parasite is the cause of the infection.

[Greefer]

I just bought the medicine at Animal House in Corvallis. The guy said I might try giving it a freshwater dip too.

[Holly]

When my tank crashed last summer, my purple firefish got that exact problem with its left eyeball.

Pic's kinda blurry, but does yours look kinda like this ?

[Greefer]

Hi Holly, thanks for your concern. I can't really tell from the angle of your picture. The eye problem is really noticeable only when I look at the fish, um, face to face. I can see both eyes are kinda swollen but only on the lower half of the eyeballs. The whites on the eyeballs also have taken on a strange metallic white color. The fish is definitely blind right now so I'm pretty upset about it.

I'm pretty sure it's my fault. I added a little live rock with pretty zoanthids on it not too long ago and tank parameters went out of whack. I have a 26 gallon so water is very sensitive. I've been doing lots of water changes and it's back to normal. Oh and that xenia patch I mentioned in the first post...looks pretty bad. All greyed out and limp. Should I scrape it off the rock? I've heard xenia secrete toxic chemicals when stressed.

[Holly]

It's been a month...how's your fish doing now?

[Greefer]

Well, the fish is still fairly blind. I'm target feeding now with a pipette and she gets her food. It just sux that she went from this beautiful fish that would swim in the middle of the tank to this hermit in a cave that only comes out to eat.

I think I experienced a domino effect by adding the little piece of live rock with zoas on it. My sea urchin died, all my xenia is gone, my galaxea has receded. I know, I know, I should've quarantined. But a little tank like mine, a quarantine tank wouldn't be much smaller than the display! Besides the rock was in the LFS display for awhile already.

[Holly]

I'm sorry to hear that. Mine is totally blind in its left eye. It can still see in its right, but it spends most of the time with its head barely visible from its little hole. I'm glad your fish is still alive! And the galaxea will recover... We all loose things sometimes.

[Holly]

OOPS - lose*