Very sick flame angelfish

[jgranata13]

My flame angel started suffering from what I diagnosed as HLLE since I got her a few months ago. As soon as I noticed, I put her in my QT, did a complete water change along with removing filter carbon, and I've been using Selcon and Vitachem in an effort to boost nutrition.

Since I started that, it seemed to curb the disease. The specific symptom that lead to my diagnosis was that her head was very pale in colour - white in some parts - and some of the skin seemed to be decaying. Since I put her in the QT, she didn't get any worse. I never observed any signs of stress - fins were always extended, normal breathing, swimming calmly but not listlessly. Today all of a sudden, when I got home, her head was almost completely white and she was being pulled around by the current (hanging vertically in the water with her head up).

I decided that my best chance was to move her back into my main tank (I had just done a very big water change, so that water is very clean, and I also didn't have any saltwater mixed up to change the QT and I was afraid she would die by the time I mixed it. I'm trying to feed mysis with Vitachem (which she usually eats voraciously) right in front of her mouth, but it seems like she doesn't even notice it.

Here's a video of her right now:
https://vimeo.com/132396968

Does anyone have any other suggestions about what I can do right now so she doesn't die?

 

[ThRoewer]

A fish in that state is likely beyond recovery.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Exactly how long ago did you get her? Did you quarantine her before introducing to the main? Have you added anything recently to the tank? Is she still alive?

 

[jgranata13]

Unfortunately she died. I took her home on February 26th and quarantined her for a month before putting her in my main tank. Once I noticed the HLLE, I put her back in QT (probably about two months ago). She was my most recent addition, so nothing living has come into the tank after her.

 

[ThRoewer]

HLLE is (most likely) a deficiency or pollution disorder and is only observed on fish in captivity.

The best treatment for HLLE is to keep the fish in ideal conditions - a QT hardly fits that bill. The fish should have gone into a tank with lots of algae and pods for recovery.

There is a reason why I don't like the usual sterile QT setups for long term quarantine - they are likely to make healthy fish sick over time.

There is a good article about this issue on Reefkeeping.com: Marine Head and Lateral Line Erosion
"... recommendations of Terry Bartelme: reduce stress, improve nutritional regime, add vitamins and HUFA supplements to the diet, enhance water quality and also try beta glucan and garlic."
I agree with all this, except for the garlic. Garlic (like all other terrestrial plants) is of no nutritional value to marine fish and possibly even harmful (liver damage).

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Sorry for your loss. Perhaps she was an older fish when you acquired her. Was she in a 37 gallon as your signature line suggests? Flame angels need a bigger tank than that.

 

[jgranata13]

Very sick flame angelfish

She was still juvenile. She was in the 37gal but I'm working on putting together a larger setup (either a 65 or 75gal DT) and the plan was that she (along with my other fish) would be going in there within a year. The reason I took her out in the first place is because she had just recently started fighting with my royal gramma and I wanted to remove that stressor from the equation. I wasn't able to catch the gramma, so I decided to take out my flame angel at first and then figure out how to proceed from there. Otherwise I definitely would've left her in the main tank since HLLE isn't contagious.