Goldfish with Popeye

[lynn0971]

Hi,
I won a goldfish at a carnival 3 years ago. He is about 6 inches long now and lives in a 46 gallon Seaclear System II aquarium. He has had popeye for a while now. I tried Melafix and it did not help at all. He was getting a few red dots around his eyes. I did a large water change and they seemed to go away. I tried going to a fish store (Petco) to find out what I can do to help him. They basically said nothing will really cure the popeye.
I was wondering if anyone on here had any ideas on what I can try. I was planning to put him back into my 4 gallon baby biorb and treat him with Maracyn-oxy for 5 days. Does anyone have any objections to this???
Any help would be much appreciated!
Note: I have two other goldfish in the tank with him. (fantails)

Thanks so much!
Lynn

[TheOldSalt]

Maroxy not good for this. Maracyn instead, or Augmentin.
Oxy worth a try, though.

[lohachata]

along with the proper meds you need to do larger and more frequent water changes...

[TheOldSalt]

Yes, absolutely. Cleanliness helps considerably. Filth often leads to infections.

[lynn0971]

I was doing water changes every 1-2 weeks. I am very good about maintaining my fish tank. Could it be a result of stress? He wasn't too happy when I put in the other 2 goldfish. I then removed them for a while and tried again later. He seemed much better the second time, but maybe still stressed????

[TheOldSalt]

Well, stress never helps, but once infection starts, removing stressors won't help much.

[lynn0971]

I agree, I just feel bad for him and don't know what else to do. Everything I read basically says that medicine wont work. I removed some of the ornaments in the tank because it looks like he is running into things because of his vision. I have a 4 gallon tank, but I feel if I move him into that to treat him it will stress him more. And I am not sure if it is a good idea to treat the main tank. Is there any chance to cure his problem with water changes? Salt? etc....???

[lohachata]

a water change every 1 or 2 weeks is not enough right now...i would say for the time being 25% every other day...continue for at least 2 weeks...after that about 40% every week....

[lynn0971]

That sounds good to me....
I already started doing changes every couple of days. I will def. continue for the next couple of weeks. Is the aquarium salt good to use? My tank uses biological filtration and I have added a bag of purigen and phosguard to the filter as recommended by a local fish store. Please let me know if you have any other ideas I can do in the meantime for a possible recovery.
Thanks again for info!

[lohachata]

i really hate using chemicals in the tank...i can't tell you about purigen of phosguard as i have never used them..a little salt should be fine....
and keep the tank unheated...warmer water actually weakens goldfish and makes them more susceptible to diseases....