Owleye or Popeye
Popeye or popeye is swelling of one or both eyes in aquarium fish. The disease is difficult to treat, but easy to prevent.
Symptoms
Puffy eyes are difficult to confuse with another disease. The fish’s eyes (or one) become bulging. The outer surface may become whitish, and the inside seems to be filled with some kind of white liquid.
Swelling of the eye occurs due to increased fluid pressure inside the eyeball. The higher the pressure, the more the eyes protrude. As a rule, there is a concomitant complication – clouding of the eye caused by damage to the cornea. Often the situation worsens when pathogenic bacteria settle on the affected tissues of the eye.
Causes of the disease
Puffy eyes most often occur when a fish is kept for a long time in unsuitable hydrochemical conditions and / or dirty water. Thus, in crowded aquariums with irregular water changes and poor filter performance, this disease is more common.
It is worth noting that in such conditions the disease affects both eyes. If only one eye is swollen, then the cause may be a simple eye injury due to the aggression of another fish or damage to decoration items.
Treatment
Popeye is difficult to treat, as it has to solve three problems at once: damage to the cornea, a decrease in intraocular pressure, and a bacterial infection.
Minor damage to the cornea heals on its own over time when kept in optimal conditions and fed a balanced, vitamin-rich diet.
The swelling of the eye will also decrease over time, provided the fish is free from other diseases and is kept in a suitable environment and fed with quality food.
Magnesium sulfate at a concentration of 1-3 teaspoons (without a slide) per 20 liters of water helps speed up the recovery process. Of course, its use is only permissible in a quarantine aquarium.
Various antibiotics and antibacterial drugs, similar to those used to treat fin rot, will be helpful in fighting the bacterial infection. It is advisable to use preparations that are mixed with food, and not just added to water.
After treatment
The healing process can take a long time, from weeks to months. The disease has severe repercussions (resolving of eye tissue) that never fully heal. The fish remains visible damage, vision deteriorates, sometimes it can lose an eye or even become blind. The latter circumstances for some species may become incompatible with normal life, for example, for predators, which rely mainly on sight in the process of hunting. For such fish, euthanasia is probably the best solution.
Prevention of disease
Everything is simple here. It is necessary to provide conditions suitable for a particular type of fish, and regularly clean the aquarium from organic waste. Exclude decor elements with a rough surface and sharp edges from the design. Avoid joint keeping of slow and overly active, especially aggressive fish.
