Sick Dragon Goby

[irishh7]

Hi - we have a Violet Dragon Goby that is almost 4 years old. About 2 months ago he started to have a swollen right eye/right side of head. At that time the 20 gallon tank was not cleaned as frequently as it should have been. He is the only fish in this tank. My son first started to put more of the salt in his tank since he is a brackish fish and read that this could help. It didn't seem to do much so about a month ago he purchased a bottle of Artemiss 100% Natural Expellant for Bacterial Diseases at Petco. The bottle says Fresh Water, so not sure if that makes a difference or not. This is supposed to help with many diseases such as bulging eyes, bacterial dropsy, fungus, milky skin, fin/tail rot, ulcers, mouth rot, etc. When we started this (once a day) he seemed to be more social. He still had an appetite during this whole time. However, his eye doesn't seem to be getting any better. Does anybody know what this could be or what is the next treatment we can try? I tried to get a picture of him but he kept hiding in his log.

 

[Marty.h]

Could be what is called Popeye google it without a picture is hard to give you a positive I'D

Epson salt can help popeye but has to be food grade you can dose 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons, wait 3-4 days and then dose again.

 

[irishh7]

Hi - Thank you for the quick reply. I was able to get pictures of him as well as the aquarium. I may be wrong about the size of the aquarium as my son bought it, so it may be a 50 gallon? or bigger. It has sand on the bottom, as well as a cave and log for him to hide in. It also has several plastic plants as seen in the picture.

 

[irishh7]

I am trying again to submit the picture(s).

 

[Marty.h]

Use photobucket and post the image tags the pictures will show then

 

[irishh7]

Ok, trying again. [/ATTACH]

 

[Marty.h]

Ouch !! That is bad I can honestly say I've never seen an eye as bad as that it's hard to tell in pictures but does resemble popeye however that fish will never regain the use of that eye it's to far gone sadly all you can look to do is clear the swelling and infection.

 

[irishh7]

Ok, what should I use for the infection?

 

[Marty.h]

Look here

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/showthread.php?t=341570

Furan -2

 

[irishh7]

Should I go to Petco and get an antibiotic? Is there a specific kind? Would they sell the food grade of epsom salts? Thank you for all of your help.

 

[Marty.h]

I'm not sure round your way have a google locally for it we don't have a petco round my way hopefully you can sort it

 

[irishh7]

Hi - I want to thank everyone for their help with my Goby. Just to update everyone, he died this past Monday, July 11. We think that it was actually a tumor rather than popeye. He put up a good fight considering how large it was and continued to grow. We are so sad since we had him for 4 years. We don't know what could have caused this but now he isn't suffering. RIP Goby.