Tangs with HLLE

[PFisher]

I need some advice. I currently have a Regal tang and a Sailfin tang that are showing signs of HLLE. I have read everything that I can find on the subject, which contains nothing conclusive. I found that the main causes seem to be nutrition, dinoflagelates, copper, carbon and high nitrates.

I recently had a large outbreak of dinoflagelates and it was shortly after this that the HLLE started to show up. By raising the pH to 8.5 and cutting light for a few days I was able to eradicate most of that nasty brown slime. But now I need to know how to help the tangs. I feed Nori daily along with PE Mysis and occasional Spirulina Brine. I have started using Vita Chem and Cyclop-Eze. Is there anything else that someone could recommend to ensure that this is not a nutrition problem? All of the other fish seem fine.

It is a long story, but during startup this tank also had some copper in the system for the first few months. But the copper is now gone, corals and snails are doing fine.

I have removed the carbon. Tank stats are as follows:
200 gallon with sump and refugium
pH = 8.5
Ca = 520ppm
KH = 10 dKH
NO3 = < 5ppm
SG = 1.025

Thanks for any help that you can offer.

Patrick

[NuraNori]

We inherited a Regal tang with hole in the head. There's nothing along her lateral line though. I would call it pretty bad because there are rather large black splotches on both sides of her face. She was kept on brine shrimp in a tank filled with green hair algae so I'm pretty sure the poor diet along with nitrates (?) was the culprit. We've been feeding her mysis enriched with Vit C, Kent Zoe and garlic and try to give her nori every other day. Also some vitamin enriched pellets with spirulina. We've had her for a year and she hasn't gotten worse and she's fattening up. So I think she's in as good a shape as she's gonna get. From what I've read you can't reverse it, but as long as it's not getting any worse and they're eating well they're gonna be fine. Good luck!

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Some sources claim its due to not enough seaweed in their diet. I feed lots of nori sheets & haven't seen this problem in my fish.

[naesco]

Originally Posted by PFisher

I need some advice. I currently have a Regal tang and a Sailfin tang that are showing signs of HLLE. I have read everything that I can find on the subject, which contains nothing conclusive. I found that the main causes seem to be nutrition, dinoflagelates, copper, carbon and high nitrates.

I recently had a large outbreak of dinoflagelates and it was shortly after this that the HLLE started to show up. By raising the pH to 8.5 and cutting light for a few days I was able to eradicate most of that nasty brown slime. But now I need to know how to help the tangs. I feed Nori daily along with PE Mysis and occasional Spirulina Brine. I have started using Vita Chem and Cyclop-Eze. Is there anything else that someone could recommend to ensure that this is not a nutrition problem? All of the other fish seem fine.

It is a long story, but during startup this tank also had some copper in the system for the first few months. But the copper is now gone, corals and snails are doing fine.

I have removed the carbon. Tank stats are as follows:
200 gallon with sump and refugium
pH = 8.5
Ca = 520ppm
KH = 10 dKH
NO3 = < 5ppm
SG = 1.025

Thanks for any help that you can offer.

Patrick

Can you post a pic of both fish?
When did you set up your tank?

[PFisher]

Thanks for the tips. I will see if i can find some of the mysis with vitamin C.

To answer your question, the tank is about 9 months old. Pictures are a good idea, I will try and get a few good pictures tomorrow.

Patrick

[bruce]

I just wanted to let everyone know that many years back I puchased an emperator angel sub adult, that had severe head and lateral line disease. he appeared in really bad shape and the pet store gave him to myself at a greatly reduced price as even they had little hope for him.
I can't recall all the foods I had fed him, but always did give him a varied diet as I do with all fish, but there is One product that a friend gave me to try and I swear it was/is the answer to this HLL and yes it can most definatelty be reversed. The product as many know is called selcon concentrate Vitamin, and I soaked almost everything I fed him with this product. His HLL reversed in a very short period of time and after a few short months, the only indication that there had ever been a problem was some small slightly noticable scarring around a few areas on his head. All I can say is that I am firmly confident that it was the product that not only saved this fishes life ,but restored him to his former glory.
I hope someone else can or has benefited from this.

[Chaloupa]

I also have heard excellent results with Selcon. I use it ALL the time and none of my tangs have ever had an issue..however I feed a very very full diet for them....so I'd try adding selcon, increasing the things he eats (more varied, with things like Mysis, Emerald Entree, and many many other frozen foods enriched with vitamins)

[aquajeep]

i got a yellow tang for discount because he had pretty bad hlle. i added him to my system that was getting overgrown with all sorts of culerpa and hair algea.he picked away at it till it was under control after 4 months he showed good signs that he was getting much better and fatened up well. and then my anemone ate him lol.. oops

[edikpok]

To help my regal that was developing the HLLE disease, I removed the activated carbon (as the powderish debree seem to be correlated with HLLE), started to feed with Romaine lettuce and nori sheets, and soak foods in selcon. The pigment does not regress anymore and slowly heals

[RD]

A study that was performed in 2001 by Dr. Ruth Francis-Floyd, Chris Tilghman, and RuthEllen Klinger from the University of Florida, shows just how important nutrient levels can be to certain species of fish kept in captivity. This particular study involved captive nutritional management of herbivorous reef fish using Surgeonfish as test subjects and were divided into 3 groups. The first Group was fed washed seaweed (ulva spp.). The second group was fed a commercially prepared all purpose type pellet food, and the third group was fed a commercial flake food that was supposedly designed specifically for herbivores.

At the end of the study, the ulva and flake fed groups suffered high mortality rates, (61%, and 39%), with the surviving fish showing clinical signs of malnourishment. Some had become emaciated to paper-thin condition. The second group (fed commercial pellets) performed the best, all fish gained steady weight, no deaths, and no apparent signs of any disease. The information from this study was made available during a lecture in 2001 at the Marine Ornamentals International Conference, held in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and has also been published in "Marine Ornamental Species - Collection, Culture, and Conservation by James C. Cato, and Christopher L. Brown.

You can read the full results of their study in the link below.

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&...page&q&f=false


The seaweed diet - 39% of the test group exhibited extreme wasting, with 61% dieing before the end of the study.

The flake diet - Most fish gained weight, yet 27% came down with Hole in the Head/Head & Lateral Line Erosion Syndrome, 16% exhibited exopthalmia, corneal opacity, and apparent blindness, and 39% died before the end of the study.

The pellet diet - On average all of the pellet eating fish steadily gained weight, with no noticeable signs of disease, and no deaths.


If you check the Acknowledgments portion of the paper linked to above you should be able to figure out who supplied the pellet food for this study.


HTH