Deceased koi with protruding eye

ColoradoCat

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Hi everyone.

So I was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with anything like this. I was doing a water change in our large koi tank and was finishing up when I noticed one of our guys had passed. I'm not sure exactly when it happened. He was swimming around yesterday and I didn't notice anything particularly off about him. Today I saw him lifeless at the bottom of our tank with one of his eyes bulging out about a 1/2-3/4 inches from his face, almost as if it were on a stalk. It seemed like some of the blood vessels around his eye had ruptured. His other eye was perfectly fine. I've looked up images of pop eye disease in koi, but they don't seem to quite match what I saw. Whatever happened, I think it was pretty abrupt. Does anyone have any idea what could've happened to him, and should I be worried about the others? If it helps, the tank itself is about 580 gallons and is decorated with river rocks and a couple bubblers and he lived with three other koi. I didn't see any obvious signs of ich. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of him as the whole thing was just too upsetting.
 

mani

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I really don't know, but I'm so sorry your lost your friend. I've been really attached to my fish when I had them and it's hard. :rbheart:
 

Furballsmom

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Hi - although popeye can occur pretty fast from what I've seen, you're right in thinking this wasn't popeye. With popeye, the eye stays in the socket. This sounds like some type of injury.
 
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ColoradoCat

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That was one of our theories. We're just not sure how it could've happened. I do remember I once started a water change on my old platy tank and one of them suddenly panicked, hit the side of the tank, and abruptly died, so I guess it could've been something like that. There's nothing in the tank itself that I would think could be potentially dangerous.
 

Furballsmom

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I had something similar, one of my Betta girls decided one day to freak out and hit the thermometer pretty hard. I don't know what caused her to do that. Anyway, her injury didn't show up for a while but she had other issues as well, poor girl RIP sweetie :fish:
 

game misconduct

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is it possible it went head on into a rock or the glass after freaking out during your water change and then after it died the other fish tried to peck its eyes out to eat?only other thing i can think of would it lost a battle over spawning rights with a female
 
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