What wrong with my blue tang?

[DSP]

Good to hear.

Be very patient. I've been trying to figure this HLLE thing out for years. For my hippo tang the healing happens VERY slowly. Months...Years...not weeks. It is not like typical fin damage from a fight or a scrape that heals up in a few days.

How have your other tangs responded to the hippo's return? I would be a little worried that now he might actually start to get picked on.

 

[roktsintst]

there is a little puffing by the others but nothing major. i think i am still gonna get rid of my yellow as he is the biggest aggressor in the tank...

 

[chrisstie]

The best advice I could give you is in terms of diet. We have this huge and relatively old Sailfin tang at my LFS that was a HLLE rescue. While it seems that there is more than one cause, changing her diet upon rescuing seemed to nearly reverse all the damage, however she has some pretty brutal scars left over.

First off it seems you have a combination of herbivores and omnivores in the tank. This can make feeding time a little difficult. I would stop wasting money on brine shrimp. I relate it to giving a growing child candy. It tastes great, they'll always eat it, but in the end there's not much nutrition there at all. Even enriched, it will only really serve fish that should be having meat in their diet.

Your blue tang is a herbivore, most of them are, but there are some species who do need a bit of meat in their diet. Your tang will eat it but probably pass most of it right through. Feeding mysis is great for your angel but again, will go right through the tang.

I would continue to feed your nori (make sure its LFS bought or if from an asian grocer completely plain (unsalted, unseasoned etc). I would also stock up on Formula 2. I would go for the frozen variety. It's not as convenient but for your tank and your fish its a bit healthier. Frozen foods tend to release less phosphates into a tank as well if you strain them.

Make sure your tang is eating this and enrich with garlic/selcon, and here's the biggie

FEED VEGGIES FIRST!

It's a great rule to make sure all of your fish get their veggies! If you put a piece of nori and a piece of mysis in, i bet any fish, even an herbivore would go for the smelly shrimp first! Feeding veggies first ensures proper nutrition and its usually a little easier to monitor who eats what and how much.

Make sure your tangs are full up with their veg before moving onto the meat for your angel and any other possible fish you may have in there.

This was done with the tang that was rescued at my LFS and has served as a wonderful living tool to educate hobbyists on proper nutrition.

I don't mean to sound like I'm lecturing but I know how easy it is to toss in some flakes and assume all is well, but getting a good frozen food brand for veg with some garlic for immune boosting can be a big help!

Other than that I'd say to definitely check for stray voltage but don't count on it being a cure all, I would think it would affect your fish possibly faster and maybe all fish semi-equally.

The other important thing to know is that diet wont fix your fish overnight, it will take loving care patience and time and constant checking on his health. While people have flamed you for making bad choices I recommend doing some serious soul searching about your stock choice. Maybe you have a friend or local club or even LFS that could babysit one of the other tangsfor a few weeks. Just as an experiment- with one fish out you could see how the hippo does.

If diet doesn't improve, QT doesn't improve, stray voltage isn't found the only other thing I could think of would be some kind of predator, maybe a mantis shrimp duking it out? Hear any popping noises in the tank? I've wracked my brain all I can tonight but am following this to see how your fish does, always concerned, and always want to help if i can.

 

[roktsintst]

thanks for the tips, i'll keep posted on the situation...

 

[jmicky41]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13143355#post13143355 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SDguy
Back in the 90's, I used to see many fish with severe HLLE, mostly in FO tanks, often medicated to an inch of their lives. Blue tangs were notorious for the condition. It is quite possible for a blue tang to lose flesh/color, and have "melting" fins to the point of almost no tissue, with ZERO aggression from other fish. The pictures in this thread are EXACTLY as I remember what I am describing....the "webbed" look to the remaining tissue at the front of the dorsal fin and the split/separating/fraying tail tips are classic, IME.

The condition, however, does not happen over night.

On a side note, I'm not sure the melting fins and HLLE are one and the same, but they always seemed to accompany one another....

This is right on the money. Just because a fish has ragged fins, it doesn't mean it has fin rot. Just because a fish has marks on it's body doesn't mean it is getting beat up.

 

[DSP]

Hippo tangs are not herbivores. People who have studied the stomach contents of this fish in the wild find that they are omnivorous. I believe this is especially true as they get larger and venture out more. They do eat a good amount of algae, probably more then we generally provide in our tanks, but they eat more plankton and benthic inverts.

IME the diet needs to be diverse.

 

[sufunk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13143355#post13143355 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SDguy
Back in the 90's, I used to see many fish with severe HLLE, mostly in FO tanks, often medicated to an inch of their lives. Blue tangs were notorious for the condition. It is quite possible for a blue tang to lose flesh/color, and have "melting" fins to the point of almost no tissue, with ZERO aggression from other fish. The pictures in this thread are EXACTLY as I remember what I am describing....the "webbed" look to the remaining tissue at the front of the dorsal fin and the split/separating/fraying tail tips are classic, IME.

The condition, however, does not happen over night.

On a side note, I'm not sure the melting fins and HLLE are one and the same, but they always seemed to accompany one another....

Well, i guess different people see different things. I dont see any pics in that link where a tang has all the little puncture wounds on the side like the op's tang does. Those marks are EXACTLY like what my orange shoulder gets when he fights with my lieutenant, exactly.

I've never seen any hlle pics where it caused little puncture wounds on the side like you can clearly see in the 1st pic of this thread. Obviously, this fish has some serious hlle but i still stand by that he is getting beat up and those marks on his side are caudal fin injuries not the result of hlle.

 

[SDguy]

My point with that link was to show the variety of physical symptoms HLLE can encompass.

I am merely taking what the OP writes at face value. If he says the fish are not attacking each other, then I will move on and try to think of other problems/reasons....

 

[DSP]

I too am asuming that Ryan has seen no aggression. I have also experienced and seen similar marks on hippos that are in tanks that I know have no aggressive tankmates, so I am more willing to believe what he says.

The marks I have experienced I would describe as pits. They are exactly the same as the pits that first develop on the face when hlle starts. These pits start to show up all over the fishes body. Fortunately my current hippo does not have these, but I have seen them before on tangs who were only living with gobies.

 

[DSP]

without enhanced feeding and excellent water quality, these pits tend to gradually turn into big agreas of flaked off skin IME.

Looking at the picture again I do think it could be injuries from another tang, but I have seen those exact pits on hippos that are not with other tangs. I know that it is possible that they (the pits on his side) are not related to fights between tangs.

 

[KurtsReef]

Is there room in the 65 sump you have listed for the hippo? Let him rest in there and see if his condition improves, at least you would know for sure its not being nipped at.

 

[iceemn360]

hmm At least he had the ability to post here in effort to address the issue

 

[GustavoAZ]

Sounds kinda silly and I don't think it's been mentioned but have you tried reaquascaping? I find this tends to throw everyone off in the tank and can help ease agression since everyones territory is now in question. I'm not saying this is a case of agression but it's something to try.

Roktsintst, you say you have had the fish for over a year? If thats the case then I'm sure you know best whats agressive in your tank. Like most of us you probably watch your fish several hours a day. I can tell you just about all the behavior of my fish and who is agressive.

I think the hippo got that way from a diet issue, stress from tankmates may be playing a part in it's over all health but diet looks to be the key issue.

I feed about three times a day. I feed pellets, frozen and nori. I feed a real diverse diet of just about anything I can think of from home made foods to garlic soaked nori of different kinds. I'm not sure what your feeding schedule is or what your feeding but try buying some more diverse foods and feed often, take note of what they all like. I don't buy into any tang being just a herbivore, everything I have eats meat. Some more than others.

The tang is eating which is half the battle.

I have a clown tang that I have raised from about three inches to about 6-8 now, from what I have read they are pretty difficult. I have never had a problem with this fish at all. I have kept other tangs however that didn't fare so well and were said to be easier to care for.

When all is said and done I do think you should look into lightening the load in your tank.

Good luck.