Sick Gold Gourami?

Question
Hello Chris,
I was surfing the net when I discovered the fish section of the allexperts.com website. My question is with respect to a adult male Gold Gourami" that I own. He measures 5 inches in length and seems to have developed some sort of eye infection. When I examined him from the front, I noticed that his right eye is noticeably swollen, protruding about a millimetre. His left eye, on the other hand, has developed a grey translucent swelling just above it. He is definitely suffering from some sort of infection. However, I do not know how to treat it.

Any advice you can provide would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Respectfully,

K.R.

Answer
Hi K.R.;

It could be infection or even a tumor of some type. The appearance is known as "popeye". Popeye isn't a disease itself, just a symptom. You could try using an antibiotic called "Maracyn 2". It absorbs inside the fish to get to infections. Other medicines treat only the outside of the fish. Here also are some web pages with info about it;

http://www.aquamaniacs.net/forum/cms_view_article.php?aid=17
http://www.fishjunkies.com/Diseases/popeye.php
http://www.flippersandfins.net/pop-eye.htm

I hope he feels better soon.....

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins