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2 "small" orandas in a 10 gallon hospital tank. tank is not cycled. I am using a bio wheel and an internal filter with equals 200 gph. I use aquatech to condition the water. ammonia,nitrite, nitrate are at 0 since the cycle has not begun. Before I put the fish in, I chemically lowered the ph to 7.2....... no clue what the chloramine levels are. These fish will be fed tetramin goldfish flakes and then they will be fed peas once a week. Currently the only meds in the tank is macaryn 2. The fish are swimming around normally.

Yesterday I rescued two orandas from a tank at pet supplies plus. They both came out of an overcrowded aquarium.One has already lost an eye from pop-eye (the place where his eye was is healed over) but the other eye is popping out too. He is also missing a few scales.

The other fish is only missing a few scales.

Sadly, there were more fish with pop-eye but I couldn't rescue them all.

I have begun treatment with the medicine that I had on hand, which is Macaryn 2, which treats pop-eye. I know that pop-eye can happen from other causes, but this fish does NOT have dropsy. I read that two other causes can be tuberculosis or septicemia. I have no clue about tuberculosis and its symptoms, but the fish definatly has NO signs of septicemia. I hope to dear God that I can save him.

But my question is, since the hospital tank that they are in was not cycled at all before hand, I know that during the treatment ammonia and nitrites are going to rise. I have Amquel plus, which reduces ammonia and nitrite levels. Can I use the Amquel plus at the same time as the macaryn 2?

A couple more questions that I have deals with the missing scales found on both fish. I have been seeing this ALOT lately in petshops on a lot of the tank mates in many different aquariums.... What causes this? Furthermore, how do I remedy it? Can I put something in the water right now ON TOP of the macaryn 2 and the Amquel plus to help with the missing scales?..... Or should I wait until the one fish heals from the pop-eye and I change alot of the water to get the meds out? What medicine do you reccomend for these missing scales? Stress-coat?

Furthermore, about the fish with the pop-eye..... I know that someone in this forum wrote that they had a completely blind fish (the eyes were still there-but blind).... So if this fishy-wishy looses his last eye---and its heals properly, he should be okay, right? I can just train him to eat out of my hand? I think this might be hard though, since he is little and not already "hand trained." Any suggestions? If it ended up being so terrible--that I couldn't get him to eat at all--would it be bad to actually catch him and try to feed him? And to do this everyday so he will learn that I won't hurt him? What do ya think?

Thank you all sooooo much.

(you know what angers me about this though??? NO petshops or SANE citizen would sell a dog or a cat with it's eyes popping out of its head... They would take the dog/cat to the vet first--or have animal rights people going after them. It's just NOT fair at all that fish are treated like this. Don't ya think?)

i was the guy who had a fish with 1 eye!! it died but n e ways as long as the fish is healthy in other ways (no ich etc like my 1 had) it should be ok as long as there is no competition in the tank. My fish finds its way around in pitch black so theorticly it should be fine. and yes, you can easy get it to hand feed

So, can I use the Amquel plus with macaryn two? Can I put stress coat in there as well?

Help? Please???

You can use Amquel and Maracyn 2 together. However, I would not add stresscoat too; it will not aid greatly with the missing scales and will only increase the osmotic stress on the fish. Perfect water quality and a little Melafix later on when all the other meds are out of the water will help most in promoting growth of new scales. The scales were probably lost due to rough handling and overcrowded conditions at the pet store or during shipping. These are not a disaster: scales do grow back on their own in time.

The popeye is more worrisome since, as you said, you do not know the cause. I suspect however that rough handling is again the cause of this. Trauma to the eye (such as it being scraped or banged) can cause eye loss or severe swelling. To be honest, I think I would probably try a 0.3% salt solution first, before the maracyn 2. Mara 2 is not very good at treating this condition anyway because it does not get right inside the fish at the source of infection (if there is an infection present). It is more for external conditions like finrot (though it's certainly better than nothing). Salt however helps the fish to osmoregulate at the site and push out some of the excess fluid building up behind the eye, bringing the swelling down.

It is up to you though: if you feel strongly that infection is the cause then by all means go with the Mara 2 first - it will not hurt him. If you could get a medicated food like Medigold however, that would be far better because it gets right inside at the infection.

If the worst happens and he loses the eye, then you may be surprised at how well he copes. Fish have other senses that they use to find their way around (like their lateral line system) and blind fish can usually navigate and find their food with relative ease. Being blind does not seem to bother them much; they usually go very quiet for a few days and then activity resumes as normal.

Hope this helps.

I rescued a one-eyed fish a few weeks ago and he is really growing. I have figured out a feeding routine so he knows where to find his pellets. He is also feeding off the top now.

You are a brave girl rescuing fish with pop-eye. I wouldn't even worry about cycling the tank until the med's are finished. I suggest doing partial daily water changes and using the amquel to keep ammonia/nitrites under control.

Brave? I'm freakin out! This is my most serious rescue yet! I love this bugger so much! I don't want to loose him. I can only hope that I have learned enough here at koko's and that the other member here will help me. I even prayed that I will do the right things to save him.

I took both fish out of the hospital tank with meds and put them in a 5 gallon bucket with a filter, heater and a .1% salt solution. In twelve hours I'm gonna raise it to .2% and then in twelve more hours, I will raise it to .3% Like emmahj advised me to do.

I figured that since the salt is cheaper then medication, it will be MUCH easier to give them fresh water (at the right temp and ph level) with a .3% solution as SOON as ammonia begins to climb. Also, I think this will be better cause before, when I was cycling my 30 gallon tank, the amquel plus never dropped the ammonis/nitrite to zero (which of course this was important for cycling the tank. I wouldn't want the levels to be zero cause then the bacteria would have nothing to grow on--but I wanted it to be low enough that my fishie's wouldn't be harmed), but for these sick fish, I definatly want it to be zero until they get healthy.

Also, I knew I couldn't do water changes with the macaryn two, cause the package says that it slowly raises the theraputic benifits of the medicine in the water..... Therefore, If I took any water out and put fresh water in, some of the medicine would be gone, and it would be hard to replace because who knows exactly how much I threw away?

Also, I was wondering if emmahj, or anyone for that matter, would tell me what osmotic stress and ossmoregulation means. Pretty please?

OH!!! hehehehe. and last night, my little popping one-eyed friend surprised me..... I got a big fish flake and held it in the water--determined to hold still until he came up to eat it.... in less than a minute, he did! He was swimming passed on his blind side, must have smelled the food and grabbed it! but none the less, after he saw my hand after swallowing, he swam away all freaked out..... Even so, he came back PURPOSEFULLY to eat more.... He even taught the healthier fish that it's okay to hand feed!!!!!