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Hi all,
Looks like condition known as Exopthalmia or "pop-eye", it might be caused by physical damage to the eye, or it maybe be caused by an internal bacterial infection.
With the normal disclaimer that I'm not very good at this, I also think it is a male.
Hi Ian,
I think I was looking at the top picture, that fish looks male.
If the fish in the bottom 2 photos is different? It might be a female, particularly if it has black leading edges to the ventral fins and a rounded tail (bottom photo)?
The pictures are quite blurry on this lap-top.
Melafix won't do any harm, the problem is that if it is an internal bacterial infection it may well have gone too far to be treatable. If the scales are slightly raised (might just be the blurriness of the middle photo) it is "dropsy" and unfortunately probably not treatable.
Generally clean water is the best treatment for pop eye.
I've only experienced it with my wild bettas, usually I think they've scratched their eye. I just up my water changes to once per day, about 50% per water change. I also add my own home made IAL (Indian Almond Leaf) tea to my water change barrel. Usually the popped eye is back to normal in about a week.
But this easy for me as all my tanks are small, and I usually have a few hours every morning before I start work to do what ever in the fishroom.
Oh, and my initial reaction to the photos was that looks like a young/subdominant male to me as well.
Every day is a bit hard as the tank is 180 litre and I work 12-14 hour nights, I do 70-80% every 4 days I'm goin to start a course of pimafix today and see if that helps, thank you fir the help and sex
This is not just an eye problem. The belly is obviously bloated too, suggesting probable damage to the kidney or other organs. The fish has lost ability to regulate its water/salt balance and can't excrete the excess water, which leads to swelling behind the eyes and in the abdomen. It could be from infection, diet imbalance, water quality issues, or other causes. Assuming it is infection, I would move this fish to a separate tank before it dies and other fish start nibbling on the body. Salt (1 teasp/gal) might help a little in making the fish's water/salt balance work easier. As far as curing the infection, it's a shot in the dark. Sometimes metronidazole, kanamycin, naladixic acid, or other anitibiotics help, but more often they dont. Good luck and let us know what happens.
I think it's just the angle of the pics as lookin at the fish the belly doesn't look bloated, I started a course of pimafix so see if that helps, I have some aquarium salt would that help also if so for regular would you dose?