30 Gallon Tank What is this growth on barb's eye?

[V1K]

One of my rosy barbs has been having this whitish-transparent growth over her eye for a past few days. So far it's getting neither bigger nor smaller. The fish is active (thus bad photo quality), curious, feeding well - maybe a bit more shy than usual. My first thought was fungus, but most sources describe fungi as cotton-like, while this one is more jellyfish-like. A bit like driftwood fungus maybe. Water quality is good as always, but we're having a heatwave for over a week now and the water temperature jumped to 29 C/ 85 F instead of the usual 24 C/ 76 F. I'm performing additional ~10% water changes every other day or so with cooler water to in attempt to lower the temperature and maintain good water quality.

 

[Slapp]

Strange,

I once had a Glowlight Tetra with a very similar issue. He recovered in a week.

I think the high temps might be the cause, you see the fish immune system gets compromised at high temps. Especially with the barbs being subtropical fish and all. The eye doesn't really have any defenses.

I would say it's something bacterial, fungus doesn't like heat, but bacteria love it.

Someone is going to say popeye, but I don't think it is. The growth is in front; on the eye, not in the socket.

Keep doing what you're doing with the cooling, and keep us updated. At the current time, I can't say anything for sure.

You could try a quarantine with anti-bacterial medicine, but keeping the fish cool is #1 priority, and smaller tanks heat up faster.

Good luck, have fun.

 

[V1K]

I think the high temps might be the cause, you see the fish immune system gets compromised at high temps. Especially with the barbs being subtropical fish and all. The eye doesn't really have any defenses.

I would say it's something bacterial, fungus doesn't like heat, but bacteria love it.

Someone is going to say popeye, but I don't think it is. The growth is in front; on the eye, not in the socket.

Keep doing what you're doing with the cooling, and keep us updated. At the current time, I can't say anything for sure.

You could try a quarantine with anti-bacterial medicine, but keeping the fish cool is #1 priority, and smaller tanks heat up faster.

I didn't know that bit about heat being favoured by bacteria but not fungi, that's useful to know.
Yes, doesn't look like popeye, because the eye itself is in place, the growth is on top of it.
I had similar thoughts about quarantine, which is why I didn't separate her. Also I only have a big bucket for that, so surface area/volume ratio isn't great for oxygenation in this heat.

I hope she pulls through. So far she's been a survivor - she's not the most careful of fish and often gets minor traumas, but always healed with no problem.

 

[peachsonas]

My betta had this a few weeks ago. It went away when I started changing my water more frequently, took about a week or two.

 

[Slapp]

I didn't know that bit about heat being favoured by bacteria but not fungi, that's useful to know.
Yes, doesn't look like popeye, because the eye itself is in place, the growth is on top of it.
I had similar thoughts about quarantine, which is why I didn't separate her. Also I only have a big bucket for that, so surface area/volume ratio isn't great for oxygenation in this heat.

I hope she pulls through. So far she's been a survivor - she's not the most careful of fish and often gets minor traumas, but always healed with no problem.

I wish you luck. She’ll probably just power through. Barbs are tough

 

[V1K]

So for the last few weeks the condition stayed the same, the growth staying around the same size and the fish being active. But today I noticed a slight popeye on the opposite eye, and the growth being slightly bigger, and the fish being slightly less active. I decided to try quarantining it in salty water (3 g/L). I moved it to a 15 L/ 3.9 gal bucket, and added the internal filter that was running in my tank along with the external one, so it should be cycled.

 

[V1K]

For the last 4 weeks I was treating the barb with Omnipur. The popeye receeded (though not 100%), but the growth is still unchanged. For the last week her condition stopped improving and stabilized, and I don't have any ideas what other treatment I could try, so I decided to return her to the fishtank. Her eye looks gross and the gill on that side looks kind of pink, but she seems in a good mood to be back home.

 

[Slapp]

zombie fish!!
What a trooper, I’m glad they’re still doin alright.

 

[V1K]

So the last week her eye gradually got really swolen and bulgy, and then just... exploded, maybe? Anyway, it collapsed one day. The fish didn't seem to be bothered by any of it xD. Now the damaged eye shrunk, and looks best since the start of the problems 2 months ago. It's clearly gamaged and blind, but there's no dangly bits, no swelling, so I'm starting to hope that it might just scar and won't cause additional trouble. A bit too early to be sure about that, it could still get infected, but I could imagine the fish living good life in her current state.

 

[Slapp]

Well what a bombshell! Lol
I had a clownfish live without his eye for a year before I had to sell him to move. I hear he’s still kicking. Eyes really don’t bother fish as long as they have one.