# Treating for pop eye



## MriGuy85 (Aug 29, 2013)

Hey all,
One of my cats (Schwartz Cory) has single sided pop eye. It's clearly protruding and slightly hazy. I don't see any signs of injury and it hasn't cleared up any in the last week. During the time I was watching and waiting to see if it would heal, I went ahead and did a massive water change (about 75%). I also added carbon to my canister just in case my water quality was bad, but all my chem testing showed favorable water conditions. After doing some reading, I decided to bite the bullet and medicate with Maracyn (sp?) Two. First treatment was tonight. I plan to check water chems frequently during the process. I've heard some say it interferes with nitrogen cycle, and others including the manufacturer say that it doesn't. Anyone have personal experience with this med? Is there anything else I should know while going through this process for the first time? Carbon has been removed from my filter. 

Thanks! *c/p*


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

Popeye in Fish
Epsom salt may help also.It helps with osmoregulation(the exchange of fluids),which besides the bacteria is the cause of the pop.It can take weeks to cure so good luck!


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## MriGuy85 (Aug 29, 2013)

Well, 3 days into the treatment and I have zeros across the board. All three values are at zero, so I guess I can say that I have killed my bio filter. Looks like I have to keep up on prime dosing since I can't do WCs.


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## MriGuy85 (Aug 29, 2013)

Well, he died. It's a real bummer too, he survived through some stuff. Kind of kills my confidence of Maracyn II. Anyways, he's been replaced with 5 (total) mellini cats, and a rubber lip pleco. Hey, anyone know a good place to get a piece of driftwood?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

MriGuy85 said:


> Well, 3 days into the treatment and I have zeros across the board. All three values are at zero, so I guess I can say that I have killed my bio filter. Looks like I have to keep up on prime dosing since I can't do WCs.


Why is it that you believe you have harmed your bio-filter? An indication of ammonia and or nitrite might indicate that you had, but nothing else. Almost all Mardel products do not harm the biological filtration.

Also, I read in a response to another thread that you believed it killed your bio-filter but still added 5 fish? If you really had killed your bio-filter adding those 5 fish could be a very big mistake. That would be one of the biggest things you should never do. It wouldn't take long for the effects of the med on your bio-filtration to be gone, but you would want to give it at least two weeks before you added fish. This is a good practice to get into anyway when you have fish that are dying in your tank. Gives you at least two good water changes between your issues and any new fish...providing you are doing decent sized, weekly water changes.


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## MriGuy85 (Aug 29, 2013)

I was wrong. The bio filter is not killed. The reason I thought it was is because of the zero number on all three tests. 0 on nitrate to me meant a dead bio filter. When I came home from vacation last night, I Had lost the one cat I mentioned. The food disc I put in the tank hasn't been touched. The ammonia was at about 1ppm. Did a massive Wc and now it looks like I'm back to almost normal. Ammonia is at .25 and nitrates are at 5 so looks like I'm in a mini cycle.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Next time you go on a vacation, don't worry about feeding your fish. I have friends that have left theirs for 3wks and had no issues and have read fish can go 30 days. Personally, I have left for 10days and had no problems not providing food for them. Those discs start to decay after only a couple of days and can cause an ammonia rise in your tank.


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## MriGuy85 (Aug 29, 2013)

That must be what happened to spike my ammonia so high. That, and the dead rotting catfish in the corner of the tank. Everything seems to be fine now.


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