Bulging eye on Cardinal Tetra

[Orcus332]

Hey guys,
I have yet another problem with my 10 gallon tank. I have a pair of GBRs and 5 neon tetras in my heavily planted tank. One of the tetras that I bought about 3 weeks ago now has a huge bulging eye. Check out the 2 pictures below to see how the left eye looks. I don't see any blood in it. The fish is now at a 45 degree angle with the surface of the water and breathing very rapidly. This occured some time overnight. I fed them around 6pm last night and he was eating just fine. There don't seem to be any fights occuring in the tank either. I did move him to a makeshift safehaven in the tank so no one can pick on him. He seems stressed out enough already.

I'm currently a week and a half into treating my tank for Ich (using heat, temp at 88F). None of my fish have had signs of Ich for a week and a half now. My nitrate levels are at 10ppm. Let me know if you need more water paramaters.

Thanks for the help!

*EDIT*
Well it's only been about a half hour since I posted the original method and the tetra is just about toast. I'm still interested in hearing what this fish may have had if anyone knows.

 

[racialfish]

Probably a bacterial infection, these are close to impossible to treat when they get that far along.

 

[Zagz]

Pop eye is usually a secondary condition caused by water parameters or stress or injury. Is there anything the fish may have scratched his eye on? It may be a result of stress of the ich. Did you add extra aeration when you increased the temp of the tank?

Ammonia and nitrite readings would help as well.