Eye infection, please help!!!

[Coral Keeper]

Just have to let it ride until you get the fish out of copper. It probably will not improve in copper as it is a heavy immunosuppressant. The thing is you have to finish copper first.

I wouldn't add any other meds just complete the regiment you are on.

I honestly wouldn't at this point. I'd give some time to recover, keep feeding and observing and finish out the copper treatment and see how she does. If new symptoms of flukes develop (scratching/flashing, heavy breathing, yawning, head shaking, etc) maybe re-evaluate. But, you really need to keep the stress as minimal as possible.

Once copper is completed and if she seems to be healing otherwise, I might do two general cure doses 5-7 days apart as a precaution. But, I think the velvet and infection take first priority right now.

Okay.. Sounds like a plan.. I have not seen her scratch or rub herself against anything.. However, I am seeing symptoms of some head shaking every now and then and I think I've seen her yawn as well..but my wife says she's seen her "cough" if that makes sence? Could all those symptoms be due to velvet as well? Since my wife and I did not see anything fall off of her during the first FW dip we gave her 9 days ago.. (this is my wife favorite fish and she picked her out... she is such a beautiful fat fish... would hate to loose her )
There is some good news though.. she still goes out and swims in the open and she is still eating pretty well... she slurps down frozen mysis like spaghetti

 

[HotRocks]

Okay.. Sounds like a plan.. I have not seen her scratch or rub herself against anything.. However, I am seeing symptoms of some head shaking every now and then and I think I've seen her yawn as well..but my wife says she's seen her "cough" if that makes sence? Could all those symptoms be due to velvet as well? Since my wife and I did not see anything fall off of her during the first FW dip we gave her 9 days ago.. (this is my wife favorite fish and she picked her out... she is such a beautiful fat fish... would hate to loose her )
There is some good news though.. she still goes out and swims in the open and she is still eating pretty well... she slurps down frozen mysis like spaghetti

Those sound like symptoms of flukes. It could still be irritation from velvet. Two most common velvet symptoms I see are scratching (targeting gills) and swimming into powerhead to generate oxygen.

 

[ngoodermuth]

It could definitely be from the velvet, how long has she been in copper now? You might see some residual symptoms for a little bit even after the parasites have all left the fish. Imagine being covered and hundreds of tiny bug bites all healing at once...

You should see improvement though soon, So if you feel like those symptoms are getting worse let us know.

 

[Coral Keeper]

Those sound like symptoms of flukes. It could still be irritation from velvet. Two most common velvet symptoms I see are scratching (targeting gills) and swimming into powerhead to generate oxygen.

I have not seen her swim in front of the powerheads..

It could definitely be from the velvet, how long has she been in copper now? You might see some residual symptoms for a little bit even after the parasites have all left the fish. Imagine being covered and hundreds of tiny bug bites all healing at once...

You should see improvement though soon, So if you feel like those symptoms are getting worse let us know.

She has been in 1.75ppm of copper since March 31st 11:30pm, so thats about 16 hours or so now?
Will do!

 

[HotRocks]

I have not seen her swim in front of the powerheads..



She has been in 1.75ppm of copper since March 31st 11:30pm, so thats about 16 hours or so now?
Will do!

Definitely could still be irritation from trophonts attached to fish then.

 

[MnFish1]

What her eye looks like as of 5 minutes ago..

That looks better to me....but

 

[Coral Keeper]

So, she has been in 1.75ppm copper for about 48 hours or so.. Did a 65% water change today to clear out the erythromycin since last night was the 10th dose.. So many white spots on her.. poor thing

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

She’s definitely a trooper!

 

[ngoodermuth]

When you did the water change, did you dose the new water in the bucket before it went into the tank? That’s a lot of velvet spots being 48 hours into therapeutic copper... velvet has a pretty short life cycle so most should have dropped off the fish by now...

Of course the spots aren’t the actual parasite, just excess mucous at the insertion points... so could just be residual irritation. But, you should be seeing improvement soon...

 

[ngoodermuth]

@4FordFamily you are better at this than me... that is velvet, correct? Or just severe ich infestation?

 

[4FordFamily]

I don't generally see ich on the eyes, so that's one clue to velvet. The other is how numerous the spots are.

I didn't read above so sorry if we've covered this ground, did we try a freshwater dip, yet?

 

[ngoodermuth]

I didn't read above so sorry if we've covered this ground, did we try a freshwater dip, yet?

Yep, no flukes... and one preventative dose of prazi given before velvet cropped up, if I’m remembering correctly...

 

[4FordFamily]

Yep, no flukes... and one preventative dose of prazi given before velvet cropped up, if I’m remembering correctly...

Velvet it is, then. Velvet and ich are treated the same way obviously, so copper power and a hanna checker is my prescription

 

[Coral Keeper]

When you did the water change, did you dose the new water in the bucket before it went into the tank? That’s a lot of velvet spots being 48 hours into therapeutic copper... velvet has a pretty short life cycle so most should have dropped off the fish by now...

Of course the spots aren’t the actual parasite, just excess mucous at the insertion points... so could just be residual irritation. But, you should be seeing improvement soon...

Yes, I did. Unfortunately I'm familiar with velvet already.. I made sure the copper level does not drop for even a second.
Hope she gets better feel so bad for her

 

[Coral Keeper]

Thank you guys for all the good advice!!

 

[MnFish1]

Velvet it is, then. Velvet and ich are treated the same way obviously, so copper power and a hanna checker is my prescription

IM cu4rious - supposedly velvet is 'velvety' and CI is salt like spots - if it was to say - I would say CI - with inadequate copper (whether adsorption - or bad testing) - but IDK - that's not velvet to me.

 

[Coral Keeper]

IM cu4rious - supposedly velvet is 'velvety' and CI is salt like spots - if it was to say - I would say CI - with inadequate copper (whether adsorption - or bad testing) - but IDK - that's not velvet to me.

I agree, it does look more like salt on the picture, however a couple hours later that picture was taken the dots were not this big(I'm guessing they were that big because the parasites JUST fell off her body?) Not sure.. but her whole body is COVERED and it's definitely velvety. I doubt she would just have ich all over her from one day to another..
I'll try to post a full body picture today.
The copper level is right on the dot at 1.75ppm. I have a Hanna checker and I checked like million times to make sure there's no absorbtion. I'm just guessing these guys have a longer life cycle so they took longer to fall off.

 

[Coral Keeper]

This is her right now. Sorry for the bad picture, I'll ask my husband to take a better one once he gets home.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Keep in mind that the spots themselves are not parasites, just the mucous reaction at the insertion sites. Not every fish will present exactly the same. It’s possible for a fish to perish from velvet without a single outward spot...

The “velvety” look is where the common name came from... but it’s not the only way velvet can present itself. Best way to know for sure is a microscope

 

[Coral Keeper]

Keep in mind that the spots themselves are not parasites, just the mucous reaction at the insertion sites. Not every fish will present exactly the same. It’s possible for a fish to perish from velvet without a single outward spot...

The “velvety” look is where the common name came from... but it’s not the only way velvet can present itself. Best way to know for sure is a microscope

Yeah I know.. but it happened to me that I thought I had ick, but it was velvet.. and I waited until it severely infected aaall my fish
So now I'm all paranoid and never want to go through that again and would just rather assume the worst better be safe than sorry they say