So the day after I said “we’re all good”, I should’ve known better.

The very next day, the left eye on the Lightning Maroon started to pop out yet again.  It’s an odd thing in that it’s the tissue that surrounds the eye in the socket that is getting pushed out, creating a ring around the eye.  Once again, back with Dr. Amy Kizer to brainstorm & trouble shoot.  Barb and Heidi were here this afternoon to do a skin scrape on the Lightning (or more likely,the mate, since both have shown problems in the past few months and the mate is replaceable, the Lightning isn’t).  The scrape is simply to go one step closer to ruling out any other possible causes.  The eye didn’t get as bad as it did the second time (not like the first when I thought it was mechanical damage, nor the third where it came and went before we could really intervene) but still, this is getting annoying.  Since we’ve used multiple types of medications already, one option is to remove the Lightning Maroon to another tank, and possibly to treat it with Nitrofurazone, which Barb has had good luck with in the treatment of “pop-eye” in the past.
In our ongoing process of elimination, I think we’re leaning towards removing the Foureye Butterflyfish from the tank.  We’re running out of other possible things to do.  The upside is that I do have a completely sterilized aquarium that can recieve the butterflyfish to keep it “clean” while we see what happens with the pair – if I have to reintroduce the Butterfly later, it won’t introduce anything new from it’s vacation.  Also thinking of trying out an Aiptasia wand, and part of me has even been thinking about a tank revamp and shifting towards a nice green BTA as the main focus.  But honestly, the SPS and Goniopora are doing SO DARN WELL (minus the ones that bleached following the back-to-back antibiotic rounds), it’s tough to tear the thing down when it’s really just finally starting to come together.
I did learn to do a skin scrape, but there is news following the visit.  I’ve given Jake Adams the scoop on this one, so watch Reef Builders for an update, probably today.
Matt