Help? Coral Beauty Angel with possible hole in head???

[fishfood50]

Hi, I'm Neil and I'm a new member here. I have a 55 gallon marine tank. Which consists of 75 pounds of sand and 75 pounds of live rock. There is lots of coral and algae growing. The tank has been running a little over 2 years, but I've been taking care of it with the help of the previous owner for the last 2 months. There are two clownfish, one firefish, several hermit crabs, several turbo snails, the coral beauty angel, and there was a peppermint shrimp. The coral beauty was added to the tank about 2-3 weeks ago, which it seemed to harass the shrimp because the shrimp hide ever since it came and the shrimp just died yesterday. although the shrimp has been in the tank over a year, we thought that the coral beauty probably stressed the shrimp out causing it not to eat and therefore die. but my main concern is that the coral beauty has a strange marking on the side of it that I don't recall being there. All the fish in the tank are lively and the coral beauty is still constantly eating. and all the coral looks healthy. the salinity is normal, I add c-balance (both parts) once a week. temp is 78 F, protein skimmer and pump all working right.

View in Photo Gallery...

so my question is if this looks like hole and the head? and if there is a way to treat it? I read about Vita-Chem at Drs. Foster & Smith which is supposed to help, has anyone ever tried it??

THANKS!!

 

[Steve_B]

I have had Angels develop HLLE (head and lateral line erosion),
In some cases feeding them sponge will fix the problem, if you can get them to eat it. I have only found 2 commercially prepared foods that contain sponge. Angel formula (ocean Nutrition and Angel and Butterfly formula). There are other things that can cause it, I have had several Angels eat sponge and not reverse the problem.
Vita-chem says it will cure it, but I'm not really sure it works. I use it in food and straight into the tank per the manufacturer instructions. It has had no effect in some cases as well. I would suggest making the water quality as good as possible, which isn't going to hurt and is always something to strive for no matter what anyway. Some meds say they will fix almost any problem you can think of, so does snake oil.