HELP! - I have a total of 8 Oscars in 4 different tanks but a few weeks ago, the youngest Tiger Oscar's eye started swelling up like a balloon. I talked to several about the problem, and leaned that this fish had a bacterial infection called POPEYE. I had never seen anything like it before so I contacted one of the pet store web sites and asked them to tell me what I should do to either treat or cure this problem. I put my ONE EYED Oscar in a tank all by itself and then added Melafix to the water every day. The eye started shrinking in size after a few days and then then all of a sudden, one night I decided to clean out all of the smaller tanks so I put all of my Oscars in the same tank while I cleaned out the smaller tanks. When I put them all back into their own tanks I noticed that this fish didn't have the POPEYE any longer, now his whole eye was missing! I don't know what to do about this - is this going to kill him eventually or will he be like this his whole life? Is it an infection? What can I use to to treat it - that is, help me find some way to keep it from getting infected again like it did before. I had never seen this on any fish - well I guess I've seen the bubble eye goldfish with eyes like that, but I've never seen it on any other fish. I haven't a clue as to what to do for him but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Well, obviously if the fish's eye has now gone, there's nothing you can do about that. Maybe it was a serious bacterial infection that totally destroyed the eye, don't suppose you will ever know. Is the fish feeding okay? I would suggest that you treat the tank with melafix and make sure the water is in very good condition. Don't introduce the fish back in with other fish until you are confident that the eye has healed as much as it is going to. Personally, I would visit a vet and ask his opinion. The fish could be very vulnerable to infection so you have to be extremely careful at the moment.

I do offer this advice without prejudice to myself because I don't know your situation and I haven't seen your fish. Please seek professional advice from somebody who can actually observe your fish, rather than asking questions on forums. Don't get me wrong, we are quite happy to help with in some situations you really do need to seek a vet's advice

Popeye is caused by a bacteria infection. The 2 most common reasons for this is either poor water quality or from fighting. As your fish only had it in one eye this points to fighting however i would test your water just to make sure. I have used myxazin to cure this

Your oscar will be able to live with one eye just fine, however he will be disadvantaged if he has aggression problems with any other fish. I would advise keeping him in a tank with no fish that can be aggressive