Kole Tang Problems... help?

[ostrow]

My Kole Tang has been a super tough guy since I got him in December or so.

Always big and fat and eating. But on day 2 for reasons unknown I had to free him from the overflow intake. Hmmm...

Then in January, he twice was stuck to the intake of a Tunze 6060 rotating on Sea-Swirls. That was odd indeed. Second time he was on it for a while, seriously tatooed on one side.

Recovered from that though too. I target fed to make sure he ate well and frequently, at least 3x a day.

Starting maybe in March, I'd say every couple weeks I'd arrive home to see that the scales were missing in a splotch on one side. Almost always on his left side. In fact, I think always. That is the side he was stuck on that last time on the Tunze.

Anyway, I'd always target feed and he'd always eat and it would always clear up within a couple of days.

I'm thinking, tough guy.

Now I am not so sure. Tonight he is deep within the rockwork, not breathing hard, but hiding. I can see that the scales are missing between his eyes right on his head, and a bit on the side of his mouth.

Hard to tell much else as it's dark in there, even when the lights are blasting away!

Most worrisome is he didn't come out when he saw me or when I fed the tank and that is an absolute first. That has me concerned in the morning he'll be gone.

When I say the scales are missing is I see white flesh. I figured wounds somehow against the rocks or maybe he picked a bad fight, though with whom given my stock I haven't a clue. He should be the boss.

Anyway, white flesh is apparent now on his head similar to in the past when always on his body.

Any ideas what this could be or what I could do???

 

[ostrow]

Here's a picture:
http://www.ostrows.us/sickkoletang.jpg

 

[ostrow]

Guess who is all healed ... again. I'm half expecting that within 10-14 days he'll have whatever "it" is even worse, and that is going to be hard indeed to witness. I sure hope I'm wrong, but this has been on a steady schedule and progressive.

Nobody had any ideas ...

 

[BONDQ]

I have the exact same symptoms on my blue tang, who has been in QT for about 6 weeks.

He's feeding well, hiding and swimming.

I have thought that his white lessions were due to his scraping on the rocks due to the stress of being in his small QT.

Does anyone have any idea about what might be causing this?

 

[ostrow]

Nobody has ideas. Make sure you get selcon into his food.

 

[BONDQ]

Okay, I'll go with Selcon in his food.

Has it been helping your tang?

Have you had any reoccurrence since last time?

Have you considered or tried hyposalinity, or other treatments?

I'm thinking that it is a fungus, but it's really hard to determine.

 

[ostrow]

"Last time" ended 7/29. We'll see next week.

I have no way to determine whether the Selcon is helping or not as I do not have a control of another fish in the same system with the same problem not being fed Selcon. NO way to know. I doubt it is hurting though.

No other treatment because I don't know what it is.

A fungus ought, it seems to me, appear as a growth. This appears as a wound.

 

[BONDQ]

I posted this issue regarding my tang over on the MarineDepot forums.

Kelly over there, suggested that it may in fact be "Marine Head & Lateral Line Erosion".

Reefkeeping MHLLE Article

If you read this article it concludes that this is caused by captivity, since "MHLLE" is not seen in the wild.

The main thing that I gain from it, is that our fish have either a deficient diet (the need for greater Vitamin C or other vitamins) or a deficient environment. There are other possible theories, but no final determination has been made.

Since, your fish has seemed to recover, one would assume that it is in fact curable and may easily be related to diet.

I have started to dose "Marine C' from Kent, which is simply Vitamin C.
I am also starting to soak food for my tang in Selcon prior to feeding.

Have you changed your tangs feeding habits?

Are you dosing anything now that you were not before?

 

[ostrow]

No dosing changes, no feeding changes. They are fed exclusively Rod's Food (do a search) and nori, and of course whatever it finds in the tank.

 

[Sk8r]

Could you have a cyclic 'low oxygenation' period? Big tangs can suffer first and most extremely if there is some hour at which, due to natural processes, the tank is under-oxygenated.

 

[BONDQ]

For me, this is conceivably possible.

I do have good water flow in my QT tank, but I do not have an air pump installed.

Perhaps, I should re-introduce it and experiment with the possibility of low oxygen being the cause.

Thanks SK8r.