Betta Fish Popeye Treatment (Easy Curing Process!)

Many people keep betta fish as a hobby but may feel anxious to deal with different betta diseases.

You may be confused about the betta fish popeye treatment. It is a disease and can be curable with quick identification and the proper care, and it will heal the potential injury.

In this article, you’ll discover some curing processes to regain your healthy betta.

Why Is Betta Fish Popeye Treatment Needed?

Suppose your betta fish is suffering from popeye disease at that time. You need to know about the betta fish popeye treatment. Popeye is not a fatal disease. Generally, it causes due to dirty water and physical harm. You can recover your betta fish by providing proper treatment according to the symptoms.

If you don’t take care of your betta fish, your betta fish can be blind for a lifetime.

3 Tips to Prevent Popeye’s Disease

If you want to keep your betta fish happy and healthy, you must follow some tips to care for your betta fish properly.

You can easily protect your betta fish from Popeye. It’s better to follow precautions than remedy.

Water change
Temperature
Environment

1. Change the water frequently.

Make sure to change your tank’s water once a week to remove all the dirt, including bacteria, fungus, and parasites.

During water change, switch off the mechanical devices such as filter and heater. Always change 25% to 75% water to ensure your betta’s safety.

Make sure to clean the decoration with a toothbrush or other sponge during a water change to clean your aquarium correctly.

Check the water quality frequently. Poor water affects the immune system.

2. Check the temperature

After changing the water, maintain the previous temperature and keep the tank warm.

Try to keep the temperature between 72 degrees Fahrenheit to 82 degrees Fahrenheit to provide a healthy environment. It will harm your bettas if it is more than 82 degrees Fahrenheit or less than 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Keep the environment safe.

To ensure a hygienic environment, you need to follow some steps–

Remove the aggressive betta fish from the tank to stop physical damage if it’s making any trouble in the tank.
Eliminate the ill fishes from the tank to save other bettas from being sick.
Make sure to quarantine the new fish before adding them to a community tank.
Never put a male or female betta in one tank, but the breeding process is exceptional.
Make sure never to stock too many bettas in one tank; otherwise, they will make the environment overcrowded.
Don’t use fish nets to move the betta fishes somewhere else.
Make sure to remove the plastic plants and use silk plants. As plastic plants are harsh and can damage the fish body.
Be careful before handling your betta fish.

What Does Popeye’s Disease Prefer?

Popeye is a common disease of betta fish due to parasites, fungus, and bacterial infections.

A big blister bubble approaches the betta eye and makes the betta life painful. In the beginning, it looks tiny, but day by day, it grows and makes the eyes swollen.

These swollen eyes can cause permanent blindness if the betta fish is left untreated.

Why Does Popeye Disease Occur?

The main reason for popeye infection is poor water condition. It also occurs to mental trauma and physical damage, and it is affected by bacterial, fungus, and parasite infection and weakens the immune system.

How Many Types of Popeye a Betta Fish Suffers From?

There are two types of Popeye a betta fish suffers from.

Unilateral Popeye
Bilateral Popeye

Unilateral Popeye

Unilateral Popeye occurs when your betta fish’s only eye is affected, and he is in a community tank, and he is the only one affected by the disease.

This disease happens not from infection but from fighting with another fish, physical damage, and mental trauma. Blood-stained eyes can be noticed in this kind of Popeye.

Prevention

Make sure to keep the environment safe and stress-free to prevent this type of Popeye.

How to Cure a Unilateral Popeye?

Unilateral Popeye can be cured by following steps and using two significant ingredients. It’s a 7th-day healing process.

What you’ll need–

Water
Small cup
Methylene
Aquarium salt

Curing process –

Step 1: Select a cup

Choose a small cup to prepare the water for healing unilateral Popeye.

Step 2: Prepare the water.

Put some water in the cup and mix salt and methylene to make the water perfect for the popeye disease treatment.

During the healing process, make sure to change 25% to 75% water every day.

Step 3: Use salt and methylene

Use some aquarium salt and methylene in the water for betta fish’s treatment as they are the primary ingredients of this healing process. Make sure to stir both of them in the water properly.

You must notice that you are not soaking your sick betta for a long time in the salt water. Instead, just soak it for a few seconds. This is because methylene makes the water blue.

Make sure to keep away your old betta from salt water. Saltwater is hazardous for old betta fish.

Step 4: Fasting the betta

During the treatment, fast your betta; otherwise, its metabolism may get more robust. Sometimes too much nutrition may cause swollen eyes. Therefore, stopping nutritious food is beneficial for fast healing.

Start to feed the betta a few amounts of live foods if the swollen eyes begin to get small again. You can feed adult artemia and mosquito larva.

Please keep your eyes on the sick betta fish to notice their progress. The betta condition starts to improve on the second day. On the fourth day, you will be able to see the symmetrical eye like before. And finally, on the 7th day, betta completely recovers from the popeye disease.

Check the video to understand the curing process clearly–

Bilateral Popeye

Bilateral Popeye occurs when your betta fish’s eyes are affected by any fungus, parasites, or bacterial infection. These types of popeyes have several symptoms.

The main symptoms of bilateral Popeye are-

Both eyes start to pop out, which is the primary symptom of Popeye.
When the eyes start to change color and look more cloudy and milky.
A white ring may appear around the eye.
Betta fish start to lose appetite and become lethargic.
Because of the lack of eating, betta fish start losing energy.

Prevention

Please keep checking the water quality of the tank and change it weekly. Ensure to eliminate the ill fish from the community tank and quarantine the newcomer to prevent bilateral Popeye.

How to Cure Bilateral Popeye?

There are several medications as a remedy that promote fish health and fight against any infections.

You must remove your sick fish in a quarantine tank to protect the other bettas from the infection. If all your betta fish live in a 30-gallon tank then choose a 1-gallon tank for sick fish quarantine.
Change the 100% water. As a result, the infection will stop spreading.
Eliminate each sick betta fish from the community tank into the quarantine tank.
You can use API MELAFIX, almond leaves, Kanaplex, Maracyn II antibiotic, and furan-2 as a medication to successfully recover the disease.
Change the quarantine tank’s water every three days.
Check the betta for ten days as a treatment.
After finishing the treatment, change the water to ensure good water quality.
If the treatment is not working, contact a vet to heal the disease.

Check the video for more ideas about the curing process –

What Are the Easy Steps to Treat Any Betta Fish’s Illness?

You must follow some precautions to recover your betta fish from any sickness. Always keep watching on your betta to provide them a remedy.

Locate the source of stress

You need to search the place of the stress to realize why your betta is feeling sick. Whether the water is too cold, or too nasty, or the current rate is too fast, or maybe the betta fish doesn’t like the decoration.

Clean the tank

Make sure to clean the aquarium with gravel vacuum and siphon to ensure a stress-free environment.

Antibiotics

Use antibiotics to fight against any bacterial, fungus, or parasite infections.

Aquarium salt

As an alternative to antibiotics, you can pick an aquarium salt to treat all sorts of infections. Make sure to remove plants and snails before using this salt.

Hospital tank

Make sure to treat your sick fish separately in a hospital tank.

Is It Possible to Die From Popeye Disease?

Popeye disease is a treatable infection. If you use some medications, you can quickly recover from the disease.

Popeye is not a dreadful disease. However, if you leave your sick fish untreated, that may cause long-term damage and permanent blindness.

Popeye disease for a long time is a sign of tuberculosis, a fatal disease. Popeye can cause death if your betta has another severe disease along with Popeye.

Conclusion

If you are still scared about betta fish popeye treatment, easy curing! Then in this article, you can understand the facts that–

Popeye is not a fatal disease
Generally, it is caused due to dirty water and physical harm.
You can recover your betta fish by providing accurate treatment according to the symptoms.

Therefore, now you know how this disease can be cured and prevented and why it causes betta fish.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Bettafix Suitable for Popeye?

API BETTAFIX is not suitable for popeye disease. This medication is for ulcers, fin or tail rot, wounds, and mouth fungus. You can choose API MELAFIX medication for healing Popeye as it works within a week.

Is Melafix Safe for Your Bettas?

API MELAFIX is considered suitable for popeyes, but it is not safe for your bettas as it contains unrefined tea tree oil, which can cause long-term damage and death to your betta fish.

Will Your Betta Fish’s Popeye Go Away on Its Own?

If it is a unilateral popeye which means if it is caused by physical damage without any infection at that time, it can be gone away on its own. You can help to have a fast recovery by using aquarium salt.

Can Your Fish Live Without an Eye?

Fish are born to heal anything quickly. So, a fish can live by losing its eye and recover from this loss.

Can Your Fish Go Blind?

Betta fish can be affected by different diseases for several infections, including parasites, bacteria, and fungus. Leaving your betta fish without any treatment can be fatal, and your fish may go blind.

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