Regal tang has popeye

[Rick O]

The title says it all. I noticed it late last night. So far it's just in his left eye and it's not very bad yet. Last night I put Zoe in his food and he is eating and acting normally.
I'll never be able to catch him to quarantine him, so my question is can I treat him with Melafix in the reef tank? I've used Maracyn II previously when I had the 55g and the inverts definately didn't like it, so I'd rather not use it.

Any advice would be appreciated.

TIA, Rick

[JASON HOPKINS]

my advice is dont put anything in espcially if you have a lot of delicate inverts .if you,ve got to try myxasin but otherwise leave well alone alot of the time these things clear up on there own espeially if the fish is strong good luck

[billsreef]

So far I have found Mela fix to be reef safe and have not heard any stories to the contrary. Wheather it will be effective on popeye I do not know. If you can't get him out another possible treatment might be to feed him with medicated food such as Tetra's or even make your own by soaking flakes in an antibiotic solution. This will allow you to target the fish and not be dosing the tank in this way.

[Rick O]

Thanks for the replies.

I had to work today so I wasn't able to get by the LFS to get some medicated food but I will tomorrow. The fishes eye has not gotten any worse and may even be a little better.

Bill, What kind of antibiotic solution would I look for to soak the food in?

Thanks, Rick

[billsreef]

I would use either nitrofuran, MaracynII(SW), or Kanacyn. These will come in a capsule and you can simply disolve them in FW to make the solution to soak the food in.

[Rick O]

Thanks Bill and Jason. The fish's eye looks normal now. I'll continue to watch it carefully and continue to give it vitamins.

Rick