What is wrong with my red scooter blenny??

[Jan]

I've had this red scooter blenny for over 6 months now. My system is full of pods so he's nice a fat. The last two days I've seen him just sitting in one place here and there in the tank. Today I come home and he's upsdie on a rock. I pushed him with a pair of tongs and he's still alive so i took him out of the main display tank and he's now in the macro tank with loads of pods. My params are all great 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates, 0 nitrities, ph8.4, etc.. He's very healthy looking except for his right eye which is cloudy and he's got labored breathing. What on earth could be wrong??? All my other fish are doing great. Everyone gets along fine???

Edited January 22, 2010 by Jan

[L8 2 RISE]

pop-eye?

[Jan]

No, eye is not popped out. I'm thinking more along the lines of flukes.

pop-eye?

[Coral Hind]

Maybe this will help.

 

http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/fish_diseases/eyes.html

[Jan]

LOL, great minds!! This is what made me think it could be flukes. Thank you.

 

Maybe this will help.

 

http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/fish_diseases/eyes.html

[davelin315]

Upside down suggests something more serious than flukes to me (I admittedly have very little knowledge about them). I do know that a cloudy eye can be a fluke over the eye itself, but if it's not on the eye (and a fish as small as a scooter blenny has a pretty small eye) and in the eye instead, then it could be some sort of bacterial, fungal, or internal parasite factor causing it. If the fish is upside down, sounds like it's really hurting and I think that flukes take a bit longer to have that affect on a fish. Up until the other day it was fine, but if you have flukes I would think that they would be evident on other fish as well, especially larger fish in the tank.

 

Nice and fat and loads of pods in the tank that are visible (I'm assuming you can see them all over the place) suggests to me that it's not actually well fed but has some sort of internal infection that is bloating it a bit. I see lots of pods in my system, but then again it's a 300 and the pods I see are not out in the open but in the cracks and crevices of the rock.

 

Whatever it is, hopefully it pulls through. If it's still alive, try and give it a dip to see if that releases some of the flukes. If it dies, definitely dip it and see if anything comes off. This will guide you on where to go from there.