Hi, I went to feed my fish & my bubble eye lost one of her bubbles. I dont know what happened, its not like it just simply poped, the whole thing is gone! I know that there bubbles grow back but her eye is all red & blood shot. Im scared I dont know what to do for her. Someone please respond. P.S. I have Melafax should I put that in or salt?

I think the salt treatment, and melafix? I not a wiz in this, but just try the salt treatment first. Hopefully a more educated member will come along.

I really don't think a salt dip would be the best for this, I mean would u put salt on ur eye? Not tryin to be rude just trying to fiure out whats wrong with my fish, so Im sorry if I do sound rude. Ok well I am trying to upload a pic of her so everyone can see. Just so you all know, yesterday she was doing fine & when I fed them today thats when I noticed her eye, but like a good little trouper she ate, & she is still active. The redness of the eye & the absence of the bubble as a whole is whats worring me. There is no bubble now & her eye looks so red & bad. Ok please help & thanks. -Crystal

aww. im sorry to hear that, crystal.

so, its totally gone, huh? i suspect that it may have gotten stuck in the filter intake screen. is yours protected? if not, youll need to put a baffle over it somehow. can you get a filter vacuum bag from your lfs? theyre, pretty cheap and last a long while. ill see if i can find the link to how koko sets hers up. if it wasnt your filter intake screen, could it have gotten stuck on anything in the tank? bubble eyes need a very well thought out tank setup to keep these things from occuring.

as for your bubble eye, i dont know if a totally removed bubble will grow back but, i suspect that they can. your going to want to keep your water as clean as you can. this means keeping the ammonia and nitrItes at 0 and the nitrAtes very low. using melafix would help very much but, keep a close eye on her and if you see anything nasty starting to form, youll need to medicate her water.

can you get some medi-gold or some other medicated food? if so, do.

please keep us posted.

paul

Thanks Paul, my boyfriend just told me that were makin a special trip to the fish store to get a vacum bag & medi-gold. I just recently did a big water change for them, so there tank is very clean & there is nothing in the tank that she could have got hurt on, I made sure of that myself. I too think it was the filter, she is in good spirits, but I will put some melifix in the tank for her. I think everything else as far as the nitrites etc. should all be in order. Thanks for your help & I hope her cheek grows back, she wouldnt be the same without it. I hate this she is my favorite & the strongest fish I have. But I will take good care of her. Thanks for the help. -Crystal

do be prepared though.. it takes quite a while for it to grow back and it will look the same anymore...

looking at the pic, I see theproblem lies with all the ornaments.. to keep such fish, it should live in an environment that is totally free of rock or display or anything that might cause obstruction that might burst the balloon..

dun worry, jus make sure water is clean to prevent any further damage/infection

We came up and checked on the fish again, and the Bubble eye was stuck in the intake. The other bubble is out of shape, but not poped, and there seems to be some damage around the 'good' eye. She is still swiming some, but seems to be bumping into things. We are going to get a cover for the intake in the morning, and have just shut the pump off until then and turned off the lights to reduce stress. Also added some MelaFix to help try and stop any infections. If anyone has any ideas what else we could do it would be greatly appreciated.

Here is a tip from touchofsky that will keep that bubble eye from getting stuck in the filter:
http://www.kokosgoldfish.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9724
I know that bubble eye goldies require special tanks that have no sharp objects as their eyes are so delicate. So you should remove all objects with sharp edges. That's a good idea to add Melafix to prevent infection. I'm sure your goldie will heal well.

plug your filer back in immediately. you dont want to risk any bio-filter failure right now. please, do this immediately. but, pour whatever water that may be in it out in the sink or toilet, it may have become toxic overnight.

also, keep a very close eye on your parameters (ammonia/nitrite) for a few days. you might have done some damage to your bio-filter by turning it off and it will take a bit of vigilance to bring it back to 100%.

post back soon.

paul

But it says on the bottel to take out the carbon, we still have the air stone going. Im confused, I have a carbon filter. Does this still apply? If your still here Paul please write back, & I will call my mother-in-law & ask her advice. She kept freshwater fish for 15 yrs.

sorry, i should have sppecified. youll need to remove the carbon from the filtr cartridge. some cartridges need to be cut open along the top edge to remove the carbon inside.

let us know how everything goes.

paul

Ok here is everything I did, BEFORE this happend I did a 50% water change, & the tank was lookin great. Then after this happend I have been putting in the melifix, I took out the carbon, since it says to do so on the bottle. But since you told me to plug the filer back in, & it did sit over night. So I took the filer off & ran hot water over it to sterilize it, I also put some panyhose over the part where my fish kept getting caught, I tied it with some ponytail holders a.k.a. rubberbands. lol I think its so funny, I ruined my favorite pair of panythose for my fish. So the news on my fish is, even though she looks horrible, she is doing good. She is eating & swimming. Ok I will write back with more when I have it. Thanks for all the help. L&L,Crystal

oh crystal, you shouldnt have done that.

your filter isnt going to do you any bit of good right now. it might actually become a pain in the neck. by leaving it off overnight, you probably killed off a good bit of the beneficial bacteria that keeps your water free of ammonia. that in itself wasnt a big deal because the filter could have rebounded rather quickly (less than a week). but now that youve "sterilized it, you have probably killed of ALL of your beneficial bacteria that was left. now, your tank will start to register higher and higher amounts of ammonia because the bio-filter (beneficial bacteria) is fully disrupted.

now, every single day and night, your going to have to test your water for ammonia and nitrites. as soon as you start to see any on the test results, your going to have to perform large water changes to keep them very low. ammonia should be kept at 1ppm or less. nitrite should be kept at 2ppm or less. this is very, very important. the rising levels of these toxins can and most probably will cause you a lot of heartache if you do not keep a close eye on them.

let us know if you start to get ammonia or nitrites on the tests. well do our best to get you through this.

paul

uhh this is so frustrating, I dont know what to do anymore. the fish seem fine. im getting so frustrated & confused. I will do what you said, but please explain what u mean by heartache? do u mean my fish will die? i have a 10 gallon tank also, that has never had a problem, never even had a sick fish in it. should i put my 3 fish from the big tank in there untill i can stabilize it? what else can i do for them, i dont want to kill or stress my babies! here is my AIM incase you have one so i can get some advice thats as close to in person as possible. Crystal3133@aol.com

Ok I checked the nitrites, & amonina levels, both are fine. Cheeky (my bubble eye) seems to be healing. Hey eye that was red is now a pinker tone. I am still medicating the tank with melifix. Is that alright? Thanks Paul you have been a huge help. OK I guess I am done for now, but just so you know I have been keeping a close eye on my fish especially Cheeky. Still Worried & with a bleeding heart,Crystal

hi crystal.

relax hun. its all good. your doing just fine. just keep her water as clean as you can for now and she should be just fine.

not to worry, if your tanks parameters are fine, you might have gotten lucky enough to not have totally dessimated your bio-filter in the tank and filter. however, be very vigilant about testing and as soon as you start to see a rise in ammonia and/or nitrItes, do water changes to bring the levels down.

i didnt mean to scare you about the "heartache" thing. i just meant that youd be going through the mental anguish that we all go through when weve got a tripped bio-filter and a sick fish at the same time. i didnt mean to make you think your fish would die.

keep us posted how her eye is doing, okay?

paul

Well everything is going well with Cheeky, she is healing nicely. I will post a pic as soon as I can. All levels are good, the water is a bit cloudy but I blame that on the meds. The one thing that is kinda bothering me is that my telescope eye (Galileo) has been either trying to mount her or he is picking at her or both. I'm confused, it looks like he is trying to get on her like a dog, & then when she turns to get away from him he pecks at her bad eye. If anyone knows what this means please let me know. L&L, Crystal

thats good news about her progress. unfortunately, your going to have to separate them somehow. you dont want him bothering her while shes so succeptable to infection. can you get a standard tank divider from your local fish store?

paul