Plecos with bulging eyes

[FraceGish]

Hi, new to this forum so please bear with me!

A few days ago I woke up to both my plecos with bulging eyes! I started treatment straight away but unfortunately both died over 2 days.

What could have caused this and how must I prevent it in the future? And if this does occur again - what should I do?!

Water levels and all other fish are fine.

Thanks in advance

 

[pip walters]

Exopthalmia ('pop-eye') is usually a secondary infection with some other underlying cause and is often associated with dropsy, which is also often caused by some other infection. It is unusual that both of your fish had the same, but without the history of the fish and everything they have eaten etc, it would be difficult to say what the cause was.

How long have you had the fish? If they came from the same batch of fish from the shop, it could be that they had something when you bought them. If during importation, for instance, they suffered from poor water quality, this may have caused internal damage that has taken a while to get worse.

 

[FraceGish]

I bought them both at the same time about 2 months ago. They had catfish pellets and pleco wafers about 2-3 times a week and courgette once a week. They did have courgette the night before they showed symptoms of infection but I've had no problems with feeding them this before.

I also noticed one of them was breathing incredibly fast a few hours before she died.