Hello everyone! I've used this forum before and your expertise is always helpful. My calico telescope goldfish "Marbles" who is about 3 years old is presenting with 1 eye becoming HUGE almost like there is a tumor behind it. The symptoms came about suddenly, he was normal on Monday, but by Friday his eye had become enormous. He is acting pretty normal, no signs of change, he eats,swims, and sleeps like normal. The rest of his body looks normal.
Here are the stats,
Ammonia - - - - -less than .25
Nitrite - - - - - - -0
PH - - - - - - - - -7.0
Tank size - - - - 30 gallons, running over 3 years
Filters - - - - - - -2 Aqua Clear 300's charcoal and ammonia changed every 6
weeks, sponge left in and all 3 are rinsed in fish water twice a
week.
10% water change twice a week
Tank is home to 4 telescope goldfish about 3 inches each. All fish are about 3 years old.
I use 15 ml of Cycle once a week, 20 ml of Aqua plus twice a week with water change
Fish eat a variety of flakes, crumblies, crisps, peas, shrimp and bloodworms.
All of the fish appear to act normally.
I just started to treat the tank with Melafix.

Something similar happened years ago to one of my fish, he was 8 years old and was alone in the tank, unfortunately he passed away from the eye "blister'.

I am very worried about Marbles and also the other fish, can this be spread? Should I put him in a hospital tank? If his blister pops could it be poisonous to the other fish? Is there anything I can do for him or is this fatal?

I have some pictures to show you which are worth a thousand words but I'm not sure how to add a picture to my post.

Please someone help with advice, I don't know what to do and I feel helpless.
Thanks, Michael

Hiya Michael and welcome back

If you can open an account at www.photobucket.com, upload your pics and copy the URL under the pic. Then when you respond here, click on the IMG button and paste the URL - it should link us to your pics.

Is there anything sharp in the tank that could have caused trauma?

I think we'll wait until you post some pics then take it from there

I'm curious as to why you are using Cycle on a weekly basis when your tank has been running for three years? And what is your Nitrate level? I'm just afraid that with those small water changes that your Nitrates may be off the chart and that the cycle may be contributing to it.. Just a thought.....

Hello JenW and devs, I'm at work right now 9am, when I get home, around 5pm, I,ll post a few pictures. I use cycle as directed on the bottle as a maintence, if that's not a good idea please let me know. I'm not sure of the nitrate levels, I'll check them tonight and post. My water has been stable and I've never had a problem with PH, Nitries or Amonia.
Marbles looks the same today, but I'm worried that this "blister' or "tumor" will rupture.
Thank you both for responding, I look foward to hearing from you again after I post some pictures.
Michael

Hello JenW and devs, I've loaded some pictures for you to see, Marbles looks the same and he is acting like theres is nothing wrong in the world and he's hungry, as usual!

http://photobucket.com/albums/e277/coffeepotman/?

I hope this works, and I look foward to your reply
Michael

Have you always been spot on with weekly water changes/gravel vacs? Did you get a reading for the Nitrates? This looks like a problem that I had with my Moor a few years back.It happened when I had a spike in my tank,and I realized that my Nitrates were off the chart.Coincidental??? I don't know.All I do know is that for my Moor,I fed him Medi-Gold for 14 days straight with nothing else and treated him with an Antibiotic.For our problem,that worked.
Anyone else have any ideas here?

Hi, thank you for your response. I checked the Nitrates using Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Nitrate Test. To my shock and surprise it's up over 100-160. I faithfully change 10% of the water and vacum the gravel 2x a week. I change the filter midia every six weeks. I've never had a problem like this before. The 3 other fish all look and act normal. Tomorrow I will get NITRA-ZORB, what else can I do? and what could have caused this? The ammonia is at 0. Please advise what to do next.

Should I do a major water change now??

Well the one thing that strikes me is it looks like severe trauma and as it's only in one eye - i would discount popeye for now.

Just on the nitrates - can you test your tap water? The nitrates coming out of my tap are around the 40ppm mark so I tend to do 50% waterchanges each week. I don't actually remove the water with a tub, I basically vacuum every inch of gravel and it tends to stay around the 40 mark.

Also, I have several plants in my tank which absorb a lot of the nitrates. So there's 2 things you can do:

first - test your tap water and if your nitrates are low then
second - a massive gravel vacuum and 70% waterchange and i think you'll find it will come down considerably.

Also, just with the swelling, you could salt your tank to 0.1% (1 teaspoon per gallon) which will help act as a tonic and keep the bacterial count down.

I'm just trying to work out if anything could have caused this ie. banging his eye against anything? Any other fish that could have sucked on his eye?

If he loses an eye - it won't affect his quality of life, I have a one-eye'd fish who fares well

Good Morning, I tested the nitrates of my tap water and its at 5.0. I don't think it's caused by one of the other fish, they all get along well without any fighting or nipping. They huddle together when they sleep and they share food without hoarding. There isn't anything sharp in my tank, I don't have any ornaments just fake plants. I used to have real plants but the fish would eat them and I noticed the plants would start to die and raise the nitrite count. Since I've got rid of the real plants my water has been good. I vacume the gravel twice a week with the water changes, and I pick out any poop if I see it. I wonder why the other fish don't seem to be affected by the water, could this be something else like a tumor or something????
Thank you for all your help, I'll do a major water change when I get home from work later today.
Michael

Hi there, We did a major water change today about 2/3rds fo the tank,(66%). I also started salting and I bought a product called NITRA-ZORB to put in the filter. The nitrates were down to about 60 tonight from over 120, and I'll check again tomorrow morning and do another water change.
Thanks for all your help, I'll keep you posted. Marbles actually looks a little better today, his eye doesn't seem as swollen, it's still bad but I think it looks better. I'm so relieved, these guys are part of the family and I feel so bad I should have been testing the nitrates as well as the ph and ammonia. the fish have been doing so well for over 3 years now without a problem and I became complacent.
Thanks again,
Michael

That's good new Michael Has the swelling gone down more?

Hi JenW, this morning Marbles looks about the same, his eye is still swollen, I checked the nitrates again this morning and it's still at the 60-80 level. My first concern is it bring it back down to 0 but I'm also worried that I may have been doing something to cause it to spike up. Is there anything else I should do now, perhaps another big water change tonight? or should I let it cycle and the nitrates will go down by themselves. Should I continue salting?
I'm wondering what the could the cause be? I do water changes 2x a week, I only do about 10% should I do more? I'm careful about not overfeeding them, I vacum the gravel 2x a week, I rinse the filter media 2x a week with water change, and I alternately change the media every 5-6 weeks, leaving the foam in. Is there something else I should be doing?
Jen you have been such a big help, I see all the good work that you and the others do for us novices and it is truely appreciated.
Thanks, Michael

Technically,we try an recommend at least ten gals per goldie,and right now,you are slightly overstocked with that 4th one.It's great that you have good readings on PH?Nitrites/Ammonia,but alot of people don't realize just how fast the Nitrates can build up ,especially on a long established tank.I think that for now at least,the water changes/gravel vacs twice a week is good,however you may want to up those changes to at least 25 %.I never do anything less than that on any of my Goldfish tanks. Ammonia/Nitrites should always be 0 BUT You don't want those Nitrates to go to 0,a good range is between 5 and 20 ppm's, to keep them safe for your fish.
I personally would stop with the Cycle,and look into just adding Prime to your water when doing water changes.It also helps reduce amounts of Ammonia/Nitrites/Nitrates/Toxins etc.
As for that eye,did you see any specs of blood in the eye itself?
At this point,that eye may need an Antibiotic of sorts(Like Maracyn),or at least some Medigold food for a couple weeks,just to make sure that all is well.

I will heed the advice. I'm aware of the 10 per fish rule, I started with only 2 fish and then I adopted the 2 others because someone was gonna get "rid of them". Prior to these guys I had 2 beatiful black moors, 1 eventually turned almost completely orange, for over 8 years. I kept them in the 30 gallon tank, they were rather large about 12 inches long. I missed them so much when they passed, I got 1 baby telescope and 1 baby black moor. The other 2 came as babies also and I planned to keep them small and not feed them too much so they wouldn't get big. If needed I was going to get a larger tank but that's quite an expense so if I can keep these healthy I like to stay with the 30 gals.
Thanks for your help and concern,
I'll keep you posted, Michael

Hey Michael,you don't have to tell me about saving fish-believe me! I have a couple of tanks with an extra fish or two in them so I know how easy that is.I just naturally state the 10 gal. rule for alot of people don't realize that.
I love Moors! I have 4 of them,and for the first time in all of my fish years,I have one that's 2/3rds orange. I bet yours at 12 inches big were beautiful.

They sure were beatiful, people would come over and just be amazed when they saw them with their giant fan tails. I want to do everything I can to make sure these guys live a long and happy life too. I remember that one of my black moors eyes was bigger than the other, is this something common amongst moors or telescopes?
This evening the nitrates were around 40, I did a 25% water change, Marbles eye is still swollen, it looks the same as it did yesterday, still better than 3 or 4 days ago. How long do you think I should keep salting and water changing before we can get back to a normal schedule.
I'm curious about the physiology of the goldfish telescoping eye and how the nitrates would cause the 'swelling' or bulge. Is there a fluid sac behind the eye that can fill with fluid and cause the eye to protrude?
Thanks again for your help and concern, I'll keep you posted.
Michael

Moors - I just love them too In fact, I have a baby moor that's about 6mm long right now (still a fry) and i'm hoping he grows into a fine specimen like his father

Micheal, I agree with Sharon - it could be bacterial. If you can, keep the salt at 0.1% for a couple of weeks and also, as Sharon suggested, Maracyn would be a good bacterial med to use.

Just on the nitrates, as I have a reading of 40 out of my tap, i'm extra diligent when doing waterchanges each week and to keep them under control, i literally have to do 50% changes weekly. Otherwise they'll get out of control quickly. Another thing I did to combat the nitrates was put a nice big log into my tanks and let the green algae coat it (it actually looks quite nice) and with the green algae and plants, it also stays under control somewhat. Nitrates is purely the conversion of ammonia and nitrites so the more waste it has to convert, the higher the nitrate count in your water. If you can get them to 20, you're doing much better than I am

Hopefully the eye will reduce in size although IMHO and to reduce the risk of loss, I would try going with the meds

How is the fish doing?

Hi guys, sorry to be short on messages, I've got a little health problem of my own and I'm going to go in for surgery tomorrow, so I won't be posting for at leat another week. While I'm gone my girlfriend (mrs. coffeepotman) will be watching the fish. She's very good with them and she has been with me all the while I've taken care of them.
Now, since I've last posted 2 days ago everything seems to be stable, I've been doing 25% water changes for the past 2 days the nitrates still were staying at the 40-60 level. Today I did a 60% water change, completely cleaned out the gravel, completely cleaned out the filters, ( rinsed and cleaned the plastic body and rinsed out the sponge in fish water and the ammonia pack. I recharged the NITRA ZORB in salt water, I cleaned out the hoses that go to the UV sterilizer. ( So much gunk builds up) Now before you jump to conclusions the UV has been off and I've not used carbon while I've been treating the tank. I treat the tank with salt and Melafix.
Tonight the the nitrates are down to 10!!! I'm so happy!!! the ammonia is 0 and the ph is 7.0. Marbles eye is still a little swollen, It looks like there is blood pooling around the bottom of the eye sac. Maybe from a bruise? Maybe from a bacterial infection that caused his eye to swell and a vessel to rupture? I'm not too sure, one thing I am sure of is that with out all of your good help and advice I'd be in a lot of trouble and might not have these beatiful fishies!
I can't thank you enough for your support. I've told my girlfriend Jennifer to contact the board if something horrible goes wrong, I don't think anything will. My instructions to her will be to add 15 ml melafix 1x a day for 4 more days, 50 ml salt per day and do a 25% water change every other day.
Any more suggestions will of course be appreciated.
Thanks again for all your help, I'll give an update in a week or so.
Michael

I've just uploaded some more pics, they are dated march 5, please have a look and tell me what you think.


http://photobucket.com/albums/e277/coffeepotman/

Hi Michael, I hope you'll be ok

It looks like the eye has sustained some kind of trauma and that may be bruising you see. I think if the water continues to remain excellent, there's no reason why he shouldn't make a full recovery.

Hopefully once you're out of the hospital, there'll be some improvement but again, if there's any concern, hopefully Jennifer will come here

Take care and I hope you make a speedy recovery

How is the fish doing?

Hello everyone, I'm back, it's been a tough 2 weeks, I'm not strong enough yet to take care of the water but while I was gone and and since I'm back Jennifer has been doing an ace job of it for me. I left very detailed instructions. Marbles eye is still swollen but nowhere near as bad, and what looked like blood settling at the bottom of his eye has cleared. The water quality is excellent, we are keeping on top of that! It appears to me that it might have been caused by trauma though I don't know what he could have bumped into. It really could have been anything.

I want to thank everybody for their help and concern, especially laurie p, jenw and devs, you are all very special, caring people, this can be a last resort for information for a lot of people ( it's not like you can talk to the pet store people!) and you guys are great.
Thanks again, Michael