Hole in the head disease, what to do?

[AcroDesCoraux]

Hi everyone, I'm having problems in my quarantine tank all my tangs have the hole in the head disease. I've been feeding them home made food with lots of algae and vitamins, they don't seem to get any better. I don't know what else to do. Help please.
Thanks a lot.

 

[Alexraptor]

Do you by any chance use Active Carbon?

 

[Deinonych]

Do you mean Head and Lateral Line Erosion (HLLE), or hole-in-the-head disease? The former is thought to be caused by using activated carbon. The latter is caused by a parasite (hexamita).

 

[snorvich]

Do you mean Head and Lateral Line Erosion (HLLE), or hole-in-the-head disease? The former is thought to be caused by using activated carbon. The latter is caused by a parasite (hexamita).

Exactly. Pictures?

 

[AcroDesCoraux]

No active carbon, I red that stress can also be the cause but I don't want to move them to my main tank until I deal with this issue, they seem fine, active, and they eat really well.
I have them in a setup similar to what they have in fish stores with rocks so they can hide, kind of like this picture

So they are all separated but maybe they are stressed out because they see each other, so I'm thinking of putting something in between each compartment so they don't see who's next door. what do you think?
I'll post pics of the fish tonight, maybe I'm wrong about what disease they have...
thanks for your help.

 

[Golfman12]

It is not truly known what causes HLLE. The most popular theories are that it is caused from some kind of nutrition deficiency or activated carbon. I would suggest offering a wide range of foods with vitamins to see if it is a deficiency. There isn't a treatment other than complex experimental treatments as far as I know. It doesn't really hurt the fish and it will live a normal life.

 

[AcroDesCoraux]

Thanks a lot, I was wondering if there was some kind of treatment because I couldn't find any.
I'm happy to know that it doesn't hurt the fish because it looks bad but over than that they seem healthy.
I'm feeding them some food that I prepared myself with lots of vitamin C, garlic, Vitamin K, Spirulina and other algae. Maybe it just takes a while for them to get better...

 

[ThRoewer]

It is not truly known what causes HLLE...

There is a good hint what causes HLLE: captivity - it has never been found on fish in the wild.

It is likely a combination of many factors that causes this condition: stress, malnourishment, bad water quality, bacterial infections,...

See here for more info: Head and Lateral Line Erosion

 

[AcroDesCoraux]

 

[AcroDesCoraux]

Here are a few pictures, I know they aren't great but it's not easy as they hide when I get close...

 

[AcroDesCoraux]

Just want to make sure that I'm not wrong about what disease they have, but I'm pretty sure it's HLLE, I also have another purple tang, a saifin tang, and a blue tang that has it but this little guy is the worse on the others it looks more like little holes, and he has lines of discoloration all over his face and one on the side of his body...