[tussinhead]

A French Angel I recently gave away to a friend is all bloated (well, at least his fins are all fully extended and rigid) and popeyed every day when he gets home from work. Ten minutes or so after he turns the lights on, the symptoms disappear. The eyes still bulge a little bit, but the fins return to normal and the fish swims normally, is active, and eats like a pig.

I had a hard time believing this, because I had never heard of this kind of thing, but I went home with him after work yesterday, and sure enough, the fish looked terrible when we first walked in. His fins were all fully extended, he was swimming very lethargically, and his eyes were bulging extremely, although not cloudy. Sure enough, though, ten minutes after turning on the lights, he looked almost fine, with only a barely noticeable eye bulge. I did also notice a very slight discloloration on one side of the fish, that I'm pretty sure wasn't there when I gave it to him. The discoloration did not disappear after turning on the lights.

The tank he is in now is a fully-cycled 120g FOWLR, and the Angel is the only fish in there. I gave him a Hi-Hat and the Angel at the same time, and the Hi-Hat died about a week later. I chalked it up to the stress of transferring him from my tank to his, but now I'm wondering if there is something else at play here.

We tested his water params last night, and ammonia and nitrite were at 0 and nitrate was around 10. PH was at 8.0. He has been adding calcium and carbonate alkalinity to try to encourage coralline algae growth, but he doesn't have a calcium test, so I told him to stop dosing calcium until he has a test for it.

Could calcium levels that are too high cause these symptoms?

He also does have some micro-bubbles entering the tank via the return. I've read that this can cause popeye. Can anyone verify this?

Has anyone else heard of popeye symptoms that manifest and then go away after turning on lights?

I was thinking about treating with antibiotics. Is this a good idea? If so, can I do it in his display tank, or should it be done in a hospital tank?

TIA for the help.