Lateral line on yellow tang.

[brandoniscool]

I received a yellow tang as a donation and after reading up on how to care for it, I diagnosed it as having Lateral Line Erosion. Unfortunately the lateral line seems to have gotten worse since it was donated. I read this excellent article on ReefKeeping, but not sure what to do now to fix the problem.

The tank is only 4 months old but finished cycling over 2 months ago (thanks to a live rock donation from Richard). The tank is still having minor nutrient export problems, I'm having trouble keeping nitrates below1 ppm but other than that all of the water perimeters are normal.

The tang does eat the dried and frozen food that I add but the tank has some algae and i supply nori sheets every other day so it's exposed to a balanced diet. The previous owner of the fish only fed flake food with occasional frozen food and the fish didn't have any problems. I also have a grounding probe in the tank just to be safe.

Does anyone have any ideas of how to treat this fish?

 

[bobkill]

Great water parameters - multiple small meals a day (tangs graze all day in nautr) and I would soak food in Selcon

 

[CoralsAddiction]

It's been suggested that running carbon (excessive?) can cause lateral line disease.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Here's a study
http://www.coralmagazine-us.com/content/activated-carbon-hlle-smoking-gun-found

 

[brandoniscool]

It's been suggested that running carbon (excessive?) can cause lateral line disease.

Thanks for posting the article. I've been running ferric oxide crystals but not carbon. I actually haven't been rinsing my carbon when I do use it because i read on another forum that the dust was highly effective at bonding with unwanted chemicals and then is just skimmed out.

I stopped running carbon because I noticed that my zoanthids didn't like it.

I'll try to buy the selcon supplement next time I order from BRS. How would I add it to frozen food? Soak it in the liquid? It would seem like when I added the food to the tank the selcon would just wash away in the water.

I've been using a 100 micron filter pad and rinsing it every day with tap water. Could traces of chorine from the tap water be causing this problem? I will continue to try to maintain proper water chemistry and have started daily small water changes.

I talked to people at my LFS today and they told me the line was irreversible. Also, the two yellow tangs in the shop both had LLD and look worse off than mine. Just saying...

 

[CoralsAddiction]

I'll try to buy the selcon supplement next time I order from BRS. How would I add it to frozen food? Soak it in the liquid? It would seem like when I added the food to the tank the selcon would just wash away in the water.

I just put some tank water in a shot glass and add some selcon with garlic powder by Brightwell and feed my fish with tongs. Neither selcon nor garlic go directly into my water column...just what's been absorbed by food. I'm nutrient control freak so I am very careful how I feed. Rule is no food hits the bottom unless I am trying to feed snail and hermit crabs. Helps me to keep nitrates and phosphates at 0.

 

[brandoniscool]

I'm nutrient control freak so I am very careful how I feed. Rule is no food hits the bottom unless I am trying to feed snail and hermit crabs. Helps me to keep nitrates and phosphates at 0.

I totally understand the nutrient control. Unfortunately my kids don't have that kind of dexterity. My personal tank at home has a smaller water volume and i'm much more careful.

That said, my zoa growth and the health of some of my inverts is better in my school tank precisely because of the extra feedings. I don't think I could support the urchins, starfish, lobsters and some of the other filter feeders without the excess nutrients. So far my mud refugiun, deep sand bed and oversized skimmer have kept things getting out of control.

So you're suggesting soaking larger pieces of food and then hand feeding. My yellow tang is really shy, I think I have my work cut out for me

Thanks for your help dude!

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Lateral line on yellow tang.

So you're suggesting soaking larger pieces of food and then hand feeding. My yellow tang is really shy, I think I have my work cut out for me



Thanks for your help dude!

No, I just drop a few pieces at a time and let the fish get it. What I was trying to say is I don't dump the whole cube of mysis or brine shrimp in the tank after soaking it in Selcon. I put powerheads in the feed mode using a controller so that fish don't have to chase the food. Lol. I have tons of SPS and try to keep my water quality pristine.

 

[brandoniscool]

lateral lines everywhere

lateral lines everywhere

So my wife and I are in downtown Chicago so she can attend a yoga workshop and I'm killing time by visiting upscale tropical fish stores. Of the two I've been to so far, all of the yellow tangs I've seen have had the same lateral line problem that mine has. When I asked the employees about it, they seemed to think that tangs developing the lateral line mark was unavoidable/normal.

 

[CoralsAddiction]

Lateral line on yellow tang.

When I asked the employees about it, they seemed to think that tangs developing the lateral line mark was unavoidable/normal.

That's very strange. Here in SoCal even some of the worst stores carry yellow tangs that are in good shape. However, my take on yellow tangs is that while they are one of hardiest tangs they are sensitive to copper, high levels of nitrates and carbon. So sometimes quarantine with medication can be harmful to them. In the ideal world one wants to buy a healthy specimen, observe in QT for 2-4 weeks and place the tang in stable reef environment.

 

[Dmorty217]

Are you talking about the faint yellow line on either side of the tang? If so this IS normal, if you google lateral line disease or HLLE you can see what is considered lateral line disease.

 

[trackhazard]

I used to think that the faint yellow line was indicative of poor husbandry but I noticed the same lines on wild yellow tangs when I went snorkeling in Hawaii. I think it may be a function of age as it seems to be more noticeable on the larger ones.

-charlie