Oscars Eye Infection

Question
Hi, i have a 3 year old oscar which has developed a bad eye infection. i was recently out of country for about 2 months and i had a friend feeding my fish here. since the water was not changed for a long time. it develovped pop-eye and there was a fungul infection on the top of one of the eyes. i know a little bit about fish and how care them, this just looked like an ordinary fungus infection at first, which is so common with oscars. i changed the water and used melaflix. but it kept on getting worse. now, after about 2 weeks, pop eye is ok on one of the eyes, but the infected eye is about to fall off. it looks like the eye is wrapped with cotton. i think he is not seeing from that eye also. it was bleeding the other day. i have no idea what to do now. do you have any suggestions? if you have an e-mail i can also send you a picture of it and you can take a look at the infection. Any Help will be greatly appreciated.

Answer
Hi Dipesh,

It sounds like when the water quality went south, it really took a toll on the fish. Thankfully, oscars are hardy and often are able to come back from the worst. This is what I recommend you do.

Stop adding Melafix, it is helpful in a hospital tank when you have a fish with mild nips or some scales missing - but little else. This fish has some serious problems and it is time to treat with real medicine, not this gimmicky tea tree oil extract. Not sure where you are located, but I know in the U.S., Maracyn by Mardel labs is often recommended for popeye, fungus and finrot. The active ingredient is Erythromycin. In the U.K, I have heard that eSHa 2000 is a very effective treatment for a wide range of maladies, not sure of the active ingredient, but it is a broad spectrum antibiotic. Another medication you can try is TriSulfa, another broad spectrum antibiotic, which is a combination of sodium sulfathiazole, sodium sulfamethanzine, and sodium sulfacetamide. Also, take a look here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/fwfishmeds.htm
For a list of medications and what they treat.

Make sure you are doing daily water changes to keep the tank as clean as possible. Ammonia and nitrites need to be absolutely 0 ppm of course, but nitrates should be as low as can be. You might wish to try adding Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) to the water at a concentration of about 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons. Mix it in warm water first.

Epsom salt helps with swelling, and popeye is in fact fluid retention in the eye. Aquarium salt - sodium chloride - however will make the situation worse, so don't add any salt, just magnesium sulfate.

The only thing you can do at this point is make the water as clean as possible, and then use an antibiotic. Without help from real medication, the situation is likely to worsen - Melafix is not intended to handle as grave a situation as this. When you medicate, you will have to refrain from changing water during the course of the medication, so make sure the tank is as clean as possible beforehand.

If you have an airstone or other aerating device such as a bubble wand, do turn it up full blast. Medication reduces the available oxygen in the water, so it helps to add oxygen to the water. It seems to make the fish more comfortable to have extra aeration, as well.

I hope that helps! Take care.
Nicole