kole tang head erosion

[fortunecookie]

Hey guys. I've been a lurking on the forums for a while now, able to pick up tips here and there. Now the issue that the search function cannot seem to solve involves my new yellow eyed kole tang.

I've got 2 month 72 bow. About 80 lbs of live rock (with abundant "foliage") and plenty of room for him to hide. Water parameters all within normal limits.

I added the my tang about a week ago. The acclimation process went well. He hid for a the day, but started happily swimming and grazing on my rocks. However, now head erosion is starting to become apparent. So scoured the world wide web and found various feeding opinions. Algae strips, feeding flakes and pellets, sinking algae pellets. Even read infusing garlic extract with algae strips to entice (obviously no-go). My little dude seems to be scared of mysis and brill. bahh.

Footnotes: Yellow eyed kole tang not eating and developing head erosion. Feeding tips? All are welcomed. And my apologies for the length of this thread.

 

[trinidiver]

I had that problem about 8 mths ago on a yellow tang and a hippo tang (the worst of the 2....... his whole head was bald). They were in a 75 gallon with not much algae growth and eventually moved them to an outside tank that was over ridden with algae. They ate allot of the algae. If you see them now you wont believe, its about 95% gone.
I heard Vita-chem works very good and i use that in my reef tank right now.

 

[MrTuskfish]

I don't think the causes or cures of HLLE are really known. But good diet, pristine water, & vitamins go a long way towards clearing it up. . The big ingredient to seeing HLLE disappear is time; it can take a lot of it.

 

[fortunecookie]

I understand that the pathology of HLLE is still not totally understood. But no one will disagree that one such risk factor would be diet. My tank is still in its earliest of stages, so yes that may definitely play a role. But getting him to eat is my problem. What sorts of food i decide to feed him influences the development of the disease. But my primary focus is preventing starvation. Fortifying everything anything i put in the tank is a good idea, just incase he eats anything. Thanks for your input gents. I'll keep you post. :beer: