Chevron Tang

[hllywd]

Well, I've gone from this:

To this:

In about ten days. The tank has a lot of kenya trees, a couple mushrooms, the caulerpa, some chaeto, and a brittle star. That is the extent of the livestock that has been in the tank for over a year, no fish, nothing else. It has a very good appetite and is eating almost anything I throw at him. Mysis, prime reef, reef plankton, flake, pellet, even eating from my wife's hand. It looks to me like HLLE. I'll test all the kits I have tonight, but as far as I know all my parameters are good. This is a 58 with a TidePool II wetdry with no BioWheel installed it was simply a sump until I added three trays of carbon when I first noticed what looked like some nipped fins.

Does anything jump out at anyone? Are the kenya trees a possibility? I've just been hanging onto this tank growing caulerpa with no real intent for any further use than possible QT before introducing anything to my 120, which I haven't for almost 2 years... (other than frags).

Ideas? (quick before ehe goes further down hill!!!)

TIA Tim

BTW - I posted this in the Fish Disease forum 1st, to no avail...


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[mrwilson]

Are you sure it couldn't be something that actually is nipping at his fins, maybe some sort of hidden predator that has gotten big and mean while you haven't had anything else in the tank? His fins and tail seem too uniformly "nipped," though, for it to be a predator.

 

[hllywd]

I thought of that too. The first thing I noticed did look like a nip on the tail fin, but it didn't heal. A day or two later the pectoral fins looked ragged on the tips. Now it's all the fins and on his face.

Not sure which way to go. My 30 is still running. Basically been cooking 50 or 60 lbs of rock for longer than the 58 has been empty. Otherwise I could set up a bare hospital tank if the were meds to help. Assuming HLLE, and I am unless somebody has a better idea, the treatment is basically fortifying the food and making sure conditions are good as I understand...

 

[A.VOID]

My tang had fin damage from stress and swimming erratically

Stress = swimming around in circles and without caution.
I thought it was HLLE until he settled down and got better.

 

[hllywd]

I really don't think it's stress related, the shop says no, but he's almost tame enough you'd think he came from somebody's tank. Settled in by the second day like he owned the place...

Anybody ever hear of a connection between HLLE and carbon use? Also, is fin damage like this associated with HLLE? What about the kenya trees?

At this point I'm getting my 30 ready to go, it's been basically cooking the rock and sand since just before I moved everything out of the 58. The only thing moving is some feather dusters. So if this is something I have to take care of without meds, and using only suppliments, it should be a better place than the 58...

 

[porky]

You can rule out the Kenya Tree.
I guess it could be stress related if you have seen the fish swimming erratically and running into rocks etc.
My guess is that another animal is nipping the fish's fins. I'd be willing to bet that it's either a shrimp or a crab that is doing this...

 

[hllywd]

I wish I could snap better pics, but this is as bad as the fins:

I don't think it's stress related, he hid for the first day, but by a day and a half he was getting pretty bold. Never have seen any erratic behavior.

There are some blue legs, nasarrius snails, and 1/2" - 1" brittle stars. This tank has been running and in my possession for 4 or five years. Never had this kind of problem back when it was the star of the show. There hasn't been any additions for at least 2 1/2 years or so and never any crabs or shrimp other than some peppermints and maybe at one time a coral banded... all long gone. Come to think of it I did try a copper banded butterfly several months ago, but I never got him to eat. Found him dead one morning after I had him a week or so with no damage.

Tim