Achilles Tang with facial lesions

[Blueline12]

I know this is not the fish disease forum but I thought it would get more exposure here.

A few days a ago my Achilles tang that I have had for well over a year who is fat and healthy started to get what looked like a scrape on the top of his head. I also noticed a white blotch near one eye with some small 1/8" white stringy thing and another on the other side near his mouth. No other area is affected.

He's eating like normal and seems fine otherwise but I would like to figure out what it is to treat properly. I am guessing some worm type parasite. Here are some iPhone pics.

If anyone recognizes this please chime in. I have already searched around the web and could not find anything that specifically looks like this.

Thanks.

 

[Fishfirst]

It looks like the fish ran into something... keep the water clean. Achilles Tang damage easily, it doesn't take much for them to scrape themselves up.

 

[ramdude]

pretty fish you have there.

 

[Blueline12]

It looks like the fish ran into something... keep the water clean. Achilles Tang damage easily, it doesn't take much for them to scrape themselves up.

That's what I thought at first but it's not getting better. He has scraped himself before and it usually goes away in a couple of days.

Thanks.

 

[f3honda4me]

Looks like HLLE

 

[Clownfishfan]

Maybe add more seaweed/algae to his diet if you can,if it is hlle.

 

[Blueline12]

Maybe add more seaweed/algae to his diet if you can,if it is hlle.

Thanks. I don't think it's hlle. He is fat and eats formula 2 flakes as well as purple and green sea veggies almost every other day.

It actually looks a little better today.

 

[Clownfishfan]

almost every other day.

There's your problem.

Tangs almost exclusively eat algae in the wild constantly,not just when it happens to show up.

 

[Lightsluvr]

I agree with the food advice - buy a glass magnet strong enough for the thickness of your glass and keep a folded sheet of nori (dried seaweed) in there constantly during the day. If you have an Asian market nearby, purchase the large bags of dried seaweed with no additives. When it is time to replace the seaweed everyday, my tangs love what has been trapped between the magnet - I just crumble it between my fingers to make it bite-sized. Once a week I soak the nori in selcon vitamin supplement and drain well.

JME.

LL