Emperor Angel question - white looking circle on face

[abank]

Can anyone tell from the attached pictures whether the white looking circle on my Angel's face is part of his changing colors or its something called "Hole in the Head disease?

He's very active, eats great and all the other fish are doing fine as well. My parameters are good except my nitrates (they're pretty high) i get constant outbreaks of green hair algae due to my tank is a fowlr tank (agressive eating fish and just green star polyps) - i just got a new skimmer to double that output.

I've been trying to feed him more Angel formula for more sponge content and adding some selcon.

Any thoughts much appreciated!

 

[fishome25]

that is hole in the head. I see it on emperors a lot.

 

[abank]

Thanks fishome for the quick reply! Do u know off hand if it's gonna do him in or there's something I can do? I have to do some research on it

 

[fishome25]

I don't have much first hand experience with it. But I do believe it can still live a very long life, just won't be as pretty.

 

[pecan2phat]

I have an 8" to 9" x-mas island emperator also in a fowlr type system and he has shown the same symptoms when the system gets hit with ick and stress. Also tank water parameters can play a part also. (at one point my nitates were about 200 ppm and my phosphates were over 3.50 mg/l)
When they battle out the parasites and I keep the nutrient levels in check, the emperator looks fine and the symptom subsides to a point where I don't really notice it much.
Emperators can bounce back easily, whereas hippo tangs are quite hard to reverse the disease imo. Selcon is a good start mixed with a good selection of frozen foods that include mysis, clams, angel formula and frequent seaweed supplement grazing.
Good luck.

 

[Monkeyfish]

There's been some anecdotal evidence that fine particulate matter from GAC is a cause or contributing factor to HLLE. Do you use carbon in your system?

 

[quagmire]

+1 for Selcon. Amazing product. Definitely worth a try. See pics below.

First picture is 1 week after starting selcon. Was much worse the week prior. Almost the entire length of the top of its top fin was rotting and had white stringy stuff hanging off it.
I took the picture a week after i started using the selcon because i was amazed that all the whites stringy stuff had disappeared. Second picture is 1 month later.

 

[abank]

I only use 1 bag of purigen and 2 bags of chemipure on my 75. I keep them in a Rena with pads and use a skimmer, thats it. I dose w/ESV 2-Part. My nitrates are consistently around 100.

The selcon certainly seemed to help on your tang. Hopefully that and more angel formula will help.

 

[pecan2phat]

Also, HLLE (lateral line) and hole in the head can occur together but are two different afflictions.
Hole in the head usually occurs in fresh water fish like oscars and is thought to be a bacterial cause.
HLLE is what you usually see in Hippo and Yellow tangs.