Today I noticed the right eye on my octopus is glazed over a little bit. I attached pictures of each side so you can see the difference. He also seems to be pulling his right eye more in to his body than his left, which you can see on the picture of all of him. Let me know if I should be worried or if it will go away. He's shedding suckers like crazy too. I know that's normal but maybe could help to know what is going on.

Thanks for any help.

So I understand that you have not had this octopus very long...

Sounds like some kind of bacterial infection. How is the water quality? The eye does not sound very serious at this point. I would recommend water changes over the next couple of days regardless of your actual water quality values.

Any other information you might have would be great.

Greg

That's correct. I got him Friday morning. Tested water Wednesday and it was:

Amm-0
Nitrite-.1
Nitrate-5
pH-8.1
phos-0

Did a 5 gallon water change Thursday even though water tested fine. Should I do 2 5-gallon water changes over the next couple days? Tank is 55 gallons. Has eaten a frozen shrimp, and today killed and ate an emerald crab and an astrea snail.

Could also be mechanical damage. we had one that came in with a scratch on one eye, eventually it went completely opaque (like a cateract) the octopus compensated for it though and lived just fine.

If bacterial try adding some tetracycline or similar (antibiotic) to the water. We use about 5g/L seawater dilution (turns the water a cool fluoro green).

J

I think that might be what will happen with his eye. He doesn't show it very often. Always watches me with his good eye while he cruises around on the glass. Where do I get tetracycline and is it expensive?

This is the brand I have found often has fish meds that is prescription for humans:

http://www.amazon.com/Fish-Cycline-Tetracycline-250-Caps/dp/B0002YF9U0

If you have a PetCo near by they might have some in stock. They do have it on-line:

http://www.petco.com/Shop/Product.aspx?familyid=100384

Thank you, I will look into it.

He looks just like Biddle. Do you know what kind he is?

where did you get him from? if you dont mind me asking.

Carol- He is most likely O. Filosus. If you search google type "Caribbean two-spot octopus", you will find a lot more results. Does Biddle have eyespots? If not he isn't the same species. The eyespots on mine aren't very noticeable unless you know they are there and are looking for them. When he hunts/gets scared he will flash them bright blue but otherwise they are usually hidden under his mantle.

mosthated- I got him from saltwaterfish.com on Tuesday. A lot of other members have gotten their octos from there as well. Animal mother got his approximately a week before I got mine.

I will take more pics tonight. It seems to have progressed quite a bit, but he doesn't seem bothered by it.

Sorry it took so long here's more pics. It is definitely farther along than the other pictures. The first picture is to compare the 2 eyes. You can tell his right eye (left side of pic) is pulled in. Next is his normal left eye. Then his right.

First pic is his left. 2nd is the right. Tetracycline still the way to go or will it do no good? Thanks for your help guys.

Tetracycline should help to combat the bacterial infections associated with the eye problem. I presume it is still getting worse? In my experience I have found that eye problems are merely a symptom of a systemic bacterial infection, thus untreatable. If the eye problem is mechanical, the tetracycline should help.

Greg

It seems the other eye is starting to cloud. I am going to get tetracycline today. Hopefully it helps out.

How new is your tank? Just curious. ANd you said your levels are good?

Almost 4 months. Yeah my levels were perfect when I tested last week. Did a water change a day after that anyway, and one Sunday (I think). Only thing is CA and Alk could be a little out of wack. They were in my nano reef, and they are almost down where they should be after 20% water changes every day.

Also, sorry Jean, but do you know the US conversion to how much medicine to give him?

I thought I might answer the conversion since I just saw it. You are talking about the 5mg/L that Jean mentioned right. That would convert to 18.75 mg/gallon or about .019 g/gallon.

Hope that helps.

Greg

Thanks, but I don't have a way to measure grams >.<. should be able to get by.

Edit: I put in about 1/3 of the bottle of Gel Tek Tetracycline. It made the water a little cloudy but other than that no visible differences. I also might buy Melafix to help him heal.

You might want to get other opinions on the Melafix before adding it, it is bad for seahorses but I don't know about Octopuses.

Also, you may want to try to gut load some of his food with the tetracycline. Most antibiotics work better from the inside. I injected Trapper's shrimp when she was brooding as a precaution against skin infections. How much good it did I cannot say (she lived an excessive amount of time after the hatching but what to attribute it to is an unknown) but I know it did not harm.

5 grams (NOT mg!) per litre works out to 0.6 ounces/US gallon.

We usually put it into a treatment tank rather than a display tank (3000L tanks needs waaaay too much med, plus the fluoro green isn't a good look!!), leave the patient for a couple of hours then return to a holding tank (or in your case the home tank) we repeat as required, usually daily for a week or so. You could try gut loading some prey with it but I wouldn't do both, you don't want to OD him!

J

k, I think I'll just inject it into his food and feed once a day now instead of every other day. He hides a lot now I think he is having a hard time because he can't see.

He should adapt. The other thing it could be is senescence. Was he wild caught? If so he's likely to be an adult with very little time left, it's not unusual for the eyes to go cloudy with old age :sad: sorry, I hope it's not the case.

J

I believe he was. I got him from saltwaterfish.com like many other members recently got their octos from. He seems too small to be an adult but I guess he could be. When I get a skinnier camera I should be able to get a picture of him in his den if the algae isn't too loaded on the glass. His den is on the back right by the glass so it would be easy to get a pic if the camera could fit. Thanks for your help Jean.