What should I do with this injuried cory?

[Brhino]

As I was moving a new batch of corys from quarantine to the main tank, I noticed one of them had a severely popped eye. Based on the sudden appearance of the injury and the difficulty I had catching the fish in the QT tank, I believe this is a physical injury accidentally inflicted on the fish by me, rather than a bacterial infection or similar. Here are some pictures. The quality is poor - my QT tank is not set up for good photographs - but you can at least get an idea of the extent of the damage.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/starmike82/DSC_0259.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/starmike82/DSC_0255.jpg

I released all the other corys into the main tank, and returned this on to QT. I've been treating with melafix and daily water changes. If anything it looks like the bulge may be getting larger, like the eyeball is slowly ejecting from the body. The good news is that the fish is still swimming and behaving normally, and seems to have no trouble finding food.

I'm not sure what I should do with this fish. I figure my options are:

Euthanasia: Not leaning towards this at the moment because the fish seems to be doing well aside from the injury, but if it can never join the main tank I don't see how there's any other options.

Move to main tank: If it's a physical injury and not a disease, there's no risk of infecting other fish, and no medications are likely to be effective anyhow... it's going to be up to the fish to recover on its own. If that's the case, seems like I ought to move it to the main tank so it can be in its school.

Continue to QT: I could leave it in the QT tank, see how it continues to develop, perhaps try different treatments, until the fish either recovers or dies.

What do people recommend?

[Bretzz]

I'd keep an eye on it in QT for a few days, then if it seems stable put him in the main.

Like you said, its probably physical, so theres no chance of it doing any harm.

[lotus flower]

I agree with your decision to continue quarantine for awhile. Many animals can lose an eye and still be functional, and as long as he doesn't have to run from predatory fish larger than he is, he should be fine. Fish have chemical-electric receptors linked to their lateral line system and he shouldn't have trouble finding the food. Most fish don't have *great* eyesight to begin with. Think about cave fish...some can't even see due to troglomorphy and they do just fine.

I think the Melafix is a good idea to prevent infection...especially if the damaged eye tissue ends up falling off.

Good job keeping an eye out for your little one!

[Goes to 11!]

Good job keeping an eye out for your little one!

He is trying to fix that whole 'eye out' thing ;-) :smile:

Q/T for a couple of weeks to see which way he heads without risking the entire community tank if, It's the only safe thing to do for him and everybody else.

[gm72]

I also agree with quarantine. No reason to kill it off if it is an injury from which it can recover.

[Lab_Rat]

I'd keep it in QT as well. That way if it does lose the eye, you can keep the water quality in the QT pristine and keep a close eye out for bacteria infections that may set in, treating if that happens.

[Rue]

I'd leave him in the tank if your sure it's a mechanical injury. The stress of quarantine and isolation might stress his immune system enough he actually gets sicker...

[lotus flower]

Could you put him in with some cycled gravel in the QT? Or use a cycled filter?

[Brhino]

the QT tank has a cycled filter already...

[lotus flower]

Oh, did I miss that somewhere? I thought I read that it was "empty" or sterile or something, and interpreted that as uncycled. I just figured if he's staying in there long-term and all...well, you're way ahead of me (blush)

[KingFisher]

I agree with the others, keep it in quarantine until the injury heals.


Side note: Your thread title keeps making me get that "What shall we do with the drunken sailor" song get stuck in my head. Thanks for that. :hmm3grin2orange:

[Lady Hobbs]

From the severity of it, I don't think that happened all at once but perhaps come on a few days ago. Sometimes we just don't catch it right away. Good job on keeping it in QT but I think I would use medication made for pop eye treatment in case it's bacterial. The eye can pop out if not gotten after right away and it appears he doesn't have long before that happens.

[Cliff]

If your going to treat like Lady Hobbs suggested, I would recommend tetracycline. It treats a wide range of bactria and will not kill off ALL of your BB. I used it once when it look like one of my tetras had a eye injury

[Brhino]

I've got some Maracyn Two, which is minocycline. Slightly different than tetracycline, I guess? Anyhow, going to try it because it's what I have.

I took some more pictures today.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/starmike82/DSC_0261.jpg
Here's the uninjuried side, so of course from this side the picture comes out clear and sharp.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/starmike82/DSC_0274.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/starmike82/DSC_0272-1.jpg
At some angles it looks like the eye is just about floating right out of its head, but at others it doesn't look so bad. It's a small body part on a small fish so it's really hard to tell. I think there's scar tissue or skin that's raised up higher than the eye itself, maybe. I think the skin that's normally raised out of the head and surrounding the eyeball (see first picture) is damaged, so it's making the protrusion of the actual eyeball more apparent.

I'll be needing another maracyn box, so so far I'll have spent $8.00 trying to save this $4.00 fish - an easily replaceable fish at that. I'm considering it part of my fish medical training though. Someday I may have a similar issue with one of the fish I'm more attached to, in which case it will be good that I've gone through this with this fish.

[Brhino]

After two days of Maracyn Plus treatment, the wound looks sort of cleaner, but no less protruding. I think perhaps it'll "heal" in the sense that wounds will close and skin will heal, but I doubt that it'll ever stop being a protrusion.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/starmike82/DSC_0341.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/starmike82/DSC_0339.jpg

[Borgey]

It looks like he's getting better for sure in my opinion. I does not look as "red" as it looked in the first pictures. I'd def. give him another week or two in the QT. GOOD LUCK WITH HIS RECOVERY!!!!!

[Brhino]

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c376/starmike82/DSC_0383.jpg
After a week in isolation and a full dose of Maracyn+, the cory looks much like it did a few days ago. It seems to me that whatever further healing is going to happen won't happen very quickly. At this point I don't know what else I would do treatment-wise, so I'm inclined to put him in the main tank and watch him from there. I'm biased, though, because I'm waiting to use the hospital tank as a QT tank for more fish. Any suggestions?

[Brhino]

well, I moved him into the main tank today. He seemed fine at first, but a few hours later he was doing a corkscrew deathroll. I took him out and euthanized him. Hmm. Not sure what happened exactly.

[Strider199]

Sorry for your Loss Brhino. I know it's only a fish but you put alot of effort into him.