Does my Purple Tang have HLLE?

[percula99]

Why my Purple Tang would have HLLE is beyond me, but it looks like he does. He has small patches of skin missing around his eyes and along the lateral line on both his sides. He is in a 180 mature reef with pristine water conditions. All water is made with a six stage RO unit using IO salt. The water parameters are all ideal. See below. Hi food is soaked daily with Zoe and garlic. He gets a variety of frozen, flake and Nori. All other fish in the tank are totally healthy. He eats very well and is quite thick. He has been in there since January and developped the problem about four months ago. To me there is absolutely no reason he would have HLLE. Does he? Can it be something else? This my second Purple Tang. The first one passed away due to a power outage that lasted a day. When I got him he had been in my LFS for 8 months. They brought in 24 at once and he was the last one. He had HLLE when I bought him and it went away in nine days. So why won't it go away on this guy? Any ideas?

Amonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10
Calcium - 400
Phosphate - 0.003 or less
Ph - 8
Kh - 9
Magnesium - 1300
Temp - 79-80F
Sp Gravity - 1.026

 

[percula99]

Hre a couple of pictures to show what he looks like. You can clearly see the affected areas. Is this HLLE (I think it is), and how do I get rid of it?

 

[trueperc]

It does look like hlle, what about stray voltage ? Also I have read getting more veggie matter in tangs diet. Purple tangs seem to be the worst at getting this from what I have read. They also say water quality maybe a factor. But this can take months to heal.

 

[JHemdal]

That is definately HLLE. Water quality is the primary cause of this, with potential contributing issues from diet problems. Stray voltage has not been demonstrated as a contributing factor.
In a survey I took of public and advanced aquarists, over 88% of the reported cures of this malady involved moving the fish to a new tank. Still not certain what the instigating factor(s) are, but the use of activated carbon has been shown to cause it.

Jay

 

[martyB]

Trying to catch a fish in a reef tank is a challenge in itself..try using a fish trap to see if you can get it out and into another tank such as that 300 - 500 gallon "quarantine" tank that you've been meaning to get. As Jay suggests, if 88% of public and advanced aquarists see cures by moving the fish to a different tank then that might be your best course of action.

 

[percula99]

My water conditions are optimum. On top of the six stage RO unit I also do a 50 gallon water change once a month. I already have a grounding probe in the tank so I am covered there as far as stray voltage might be concerned. He gets a wide variety of foods and putting him in another tank probably would be a short term solution as in time he would just end up back in the display he is now. Jay, I have thought about the idea of activated carbon. I used to run a canister filter with that in it, but have changed to a dual phosban reactor with phosban media in one reactor and activated carbon in the other. I will definitely remove the carbon and see if that helps.

 

[JHemdal]

percula99,

Removing the carbon (if that indeed was the cause) won't help. Whatever carbon does to water to cause this problem stays in the tank long after the carbon has been removed. My hypothethis is that it is the dust from the carbon, and indeed, dustless carbons, or extruded pellets seem to be less of an issue, but once the dust gets in there, it seems to cause problems in sensitive fish for years.

Jay

 

[percula99]

Thanks for the reply Jay. It is time to replace the carbon anyway, so at least removing it completely can't hurt. This carbon was dusty and I rinsed it excessively, but now that I think of it this problem did seem to occur in the general time frame I started using it. It would be unfortunate for the HLLE to last for years on an otherwise very beautiful and healthy fish. I gather from what you are saying several large water chages wouldn't help?

 

[percula99]

I have removed the activated carbon from the system. It was only being used to try to brighten up the water. I also did a water change. Now we wait and hope in time the HLLE goes away.

Any other ideas out there?

 

[joeyt66]

I just had the same problem i added some carbon and my sohal tang looked real bad after 2 days. I removed it. A week later he is looking better, but not %100

 

[percula99]

Well it's been one month (Nov. 2) since I posted pictures of my Purple Tang with HLLE. I removed the carbon and have been soaking the food in Zoe and Garlic. I have even done more water changes than usual. There is absolutely no change in his condition yet. The HLLE looks exactly now like it did when I took those pictures. I guess we have to wait years like Jay said. He is not in any discernable distress from the markings but it does spoil his appearance. All other fish in the tank are doing well with no signs of HLLE at all.

 

[baldwinaquaman]

I suspect stress from another fish can cause this, and also you may be using too much zoe, it is now reccommended to be used everyday. Try feeding some different foods than you normally do, and less food more often throughout the day and see if that helps. You could also try to obtain some live macro such as graciliaria, this could also be very beneficial to the tang.

 

[joeyt66]

My sohal tang is looing a lot better latly. Back to about 80% in looks. Ive been doing alot of different foods and i started adding iodide to the tank also. hes looking alot better. Just thought id share some of my info for you. Maybe some added iodide will help

 

[joeyt66]

A few pic to show difference.

A few pic to show difference.

BEFORE

AFTER