# Treating Popeye



## Kim (Apr 30, 2008)

Sadly, my betta Prof. Lupin has developed popeye which has not responded to any treatments. Does anyone have any ideas of what could help save him?

So far he was on two full treatments of fungus clear for what appeared to be fin rot. He is a tail biter, and also around 2.5 years old now, but his tail just looked much worse than his normal biting, so I decided to medicate him. All looked fine for about a week after treatments, but then he developed popeye. I used some Maracyn-TC, but this did nothing for him. About halfway through the Maracyn treatment, I went and bought some antibacterial medicated fish food, since the popeye seemed to be an internal infection that probably started with the fin rot. I have since finished with the Maracyn treatment, but continue to use the medicated fish food. I have also been changing about 50% of the water every other day to clear the tank of the meds and give him the cleanest water possible (he can't see out of the affected eye at all, so he tends to let some of the food drop to the bottom).

I know he is old and it is probably just his time, but I just want to make sure that I am doing everything that I can for him. The odd thing is that although he looks terrible and has lost all sight in his eye (which is protruding to a gruesome extent) he is still making bubble nests, flaring at his neighbor, and swimming actively.

For those of you who don't know, he is in a cycled, heated (80 F), and filtered 5.5 gallon tank. The tank has been running for years now, and water parameters are 0 ammonia and nitrite, and nitrate stays around 5 ppm. There are no other fish in the tank with him.


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## jpbotha (Dec 9, 2008)

Two options. Either let his popeye heal by itself, which wokrs in somes cases. unless its some serious internal bacterial infection for which i doubt whether medication is gonna safe him. 
Or try Epsom salt with increased temperature. It has always worked on my cichlids who developed popeye. You can just try and see if it helps for your betta. Would be interesting.


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## christineluhe (Jul 4, 2010)

When my betta fish got popeye I cleaned the tank everyday and didn't use any medication. The popeye went away in a good week


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