majestic angel pop eye

Question
hey my majestic angel has got an infection in its eye which i think is pop eye i put it in a freshwater bath for 30 seconds. is that all i have to do or is their something els i should do? or was 30 seconds not long enough the guy at my lfs said 30 seconds so yeah I'm just double checking to make sure the guy knows what he is talking about.

Answer
Hi Ryan. Usually when any saltwater fish develops a case of cloudy eye or pop eye it is due to poor water conditions or a parasitic infection. Most parasites are visible on the skin of the fish and if you are not seeing any signs of this and none of your other fish seem to be having problems then it may be a water quality issue. While fresh water baths are practiced by many marine aquarists I do not ever recommend them. They are very stressful to the fish and the number one cause of illness in saltwater fish is stress related. A lot of times fresh water baths may actually make them worse. Another down side to freshwater baths is that they only "work" for parasites. They do not work for bacterial infections or abrasions or viruses. Even when used to help rid a fish of parasites they are ineffective. Most parasites will not die in freshwater but just fall off the fish and go dormant. As soon as the fish is reintroduced to the high salinity, any parasite that may still be on the fish, net or even in a drop of water, comes out of dormancy and becomes active again. It is a very over used treatment and a very ineffective one at that. Check all your water quality parameters first and foremost and correct any thing that may need to be corrected. Remove the fish to a quarantine tank if at all possible and maintain the fish in there with extremely high water quality.low stress and good nutrition. The eye should get better on its own if you let the fish's natural immune system kick in. If a fish is overly stressed the fish's immune system will not be working properly and will often lead to all kinds of infections. Angelfish are extremely prone to disease and parasites. They must be kept in optimum water conditions and as stress free as possible to keep them healthy. Some of the common stress factors are bullying by another fish, poor water quality, poor nutrition, too small of a tank, overcrowding, toxins in the water, too much activity in the room the fish is in, and parasites. Unless there is evidence of a parasitic infection most of the time these eye problems will clear up on their own provided the water quality is highly maintained and the fish is not under any stress.
Pop-eye can also be cause by a gas embolism. Water under high pressure can have an excess of dissolved gasses that can invade the blood and lead to a deposition of bubbles, usually nitrogen, in the tissues. In the eye, they can lead to exophthalomos(pop-eye). Even a sudden rise in temp. that causes gases to have a lower solubility could release enough nitrogen to start pop-eye. So if bubbles are seen in an eye chances are that there may be bubbles under the skin as well. Treatment is to lower the temperature as much as possible and cut down on aeration. Another cause of pop-eye can be too much copper in the water. If you recently treated the tank with a copper based medication you may want to test the water to be sure there is no more copper in there. Renewing any activated carbon and doing a partial will remedy the fish of pop-eye if it is due to this. One last cause of pop-eye is a genetic hormone imbalance in the pituitary gland in the fish. There is no cure for pop-eye in this case and it usually will clear up on its own over time under excellent water conditions.