White Eye on Mandarin

[Mihai]

My female mandarin has a problem at her right eye. It has a big white spot and she's not moving it. It's also bigger than the left one (see second pic).

Sorry for the pics, but she wanted to keep an eye on me and almost constantly hid the other one. She also has something resembling bristleworm bristles on her right side. She seems to continue to eat - at the very least she looks like she's picking at something, I'm not sure if she really is catching them. She is quite a bit thinner than she used to be. She's not looking bad as before she always had a very big belly, now is "male sized".

I wonder what can have caused it, and if it is anything I can do to help.

Thanks,
Mihai

 

[Len]

Is the white spot external or internal?

I don't think there's anything that you can do If it's bacterial, you can remove the fish and treat it with antibiotics in a hospital tank. But since you see bristles, the Mandarin probably got in a skirmish with a bristle worm which inflicted some damage on the fish's body and eyes (often observed as white areas on the eyes). This should heal in time.

 

[Anonymous]

It should heal or you will have a one eyed fish. They can survive fine with one eye.

 

[Mihai]

It sticks out a bit, but most white is inside and it's really opaque. How do they get in fights with bristle worms? They don't try to eat each other, do they? My Royal Gramma eats worms and I never saw it with bubus on it.

I really hope she heals, as since she got the eye bubu she's not into sex anymore (doh!); I loved watching them every night.

M.

 

[Mihai]

Len,

how can I tell if it's bacterial? The bristles may be unrelated (maybe just bumped into a worm - I saw her bump into rocks on that side from time to time). The eye seems to be in the same stage as yesterday. Still hunting, but I think just a tad skinnier than yesterday. I'm worried that she may miss the target without two functionaly eyes.

Thanks,
Mihai

 

[Len]

You can't really know it's bacterial for sure without a biopsy and that's not reasonable If it's slightly swollen, it's likely infected. Normally, I'd take these fish out and treat them in a seperate tank with broad spectrum gram negative antibiotics. But this is a Mandarin, and a sterile tank will simply mean it starves further I think you're best course of action is to let it heal on its own (should take a couple of weeks if past eye damage of a few of my fish are any indication). I'm sure the eyesight is affecting it's hunt as this species has telescoping eyes (like chaemeleons) which would suggest that sight is important for targeting and distance assessment. Let's just hope your guy weathers the difficulties and heals in a timely manner.

Bristleworms can be REALLY nasty. I've seen a lot of fish with bristleworm thorns stuck in them, either because they tried to eat the worm or simply came too close. Your mandarin probably got poked in the eye by one 8O ouch!

 

[Mihai]

Thanks Len, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I have a 10 gal setup with LR and tons of pods and I can probably try to treat her in that, but I think that my chances of catching her in the display are close to nil (I didn't even figured out where she sleeps).

I'll just keep my fingers crossed. Her husband endured at least a 5 week period without food, hopefully she'll be able to heal before she starves.

M.

 

[Anonymous]

My clark's clown had an eye injury from a fight with my tomato clown and his healed in about two weeks.

 

[Mihai]

Thanks, I'll keep my fingers crossed.
M.

 

[Terry B]

I would treat for external parasites with a series of formalin dips and keep the fish in quarantine with a good antibiotic. You could use Maracyn-Two at double strength for 7 days or nitrofurazone (Furacyn) 3 days or Furanase for 3 days.

Terry B