Why does my blue tang look like this?

[brittanysmith18]

I do rinse off the carbon before using it. I will try some time without the carbon in it, and see what happens. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Triton_Z]

This comment is priceless, had a good morning LOL with my coffee..

I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking the same thing.

You could also try to feed some spirulina pellets if your tang likes pellets. There are a number of varieties from different places. I used to have some HBH brand soft pellets I liked, but no longer appears on Amazon. I am still looking for another source.

This species of tang appears sensitive to HLLE and all sorts of skin conditions. Mix up the diet and evaluate your activated carbon use as suggested.

 

[s_kelley]

Have you tried nori? Can get at any reputable lfs or Asian cuisene store. I haven't seen a tang that will pass up this stuff. Soak it in garlic and watch out! Good luck with that fish I think you just need to vary its diet more algae.

 

[brittanysmith18]

My tank hates pellets. I feed her spirulina flakes. I might start feeding them rotifers (clownfish breeding) and maybe she will take to that. I plan on getting some mysis shrimp soon. Do you do frozen or live mysis?

 

[upnext]

Try yhe seaweed with garlic and put it on a clip, at first he might ignore it but he will eat it . I have 15 tangs and that mainly what I feed them. Good luck

 

[brittanysmith18]

I'll try. Or I could just not feed them anything else and just leave the seaweed in there. I feel bad about doing that though.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I have seen this a lot in blue tangs, believe it or not I have even seen one much worse. Could be from several things:

1. Lack of greens in the diet (as others have said) or otherwise poor nutrition. Blue tangs are one of the tangs that are planktivores in nature unlike most other tangs, so it can be hard to get them to eat greens (and IMO, they are not as dependent on greens in their diet as other tangs for this reason).

2. HLLE from poor water quality and/or stress. I hate to bring this up on a tang thread, but... how big is the tank he is in? Also what are your water parameters. This is also what people were pointing to asking about the carbon as carbon use has been reported to cause HLLE (this is hardly still debated and plenty of people run carbon and are fine though).

3. Blue tangs are just stupid and they scratch themselves up. They wedge themselves under rocks, in tight spaces, etc. I used to work in a fish store and we stopped ordering them because they would come in, scratch themselves up, and then nobody would buy them. One of the reasons I'll never have this fish is I am particular about my fish looking "perfect" and that rarely seems to happen with blue tangs.

 

[Vlado4x4]

That looks like a really bad case of HLLE to me !! Look for stray voltage in your tank and put a ground probe as soon as you can.

Offer lots of greens in the diet and you´ll start to see some improvement over time. It takes a lot of time, but it heals perfectly.

 

[brittanysmith18]

I'll check for all..

My tank parameters are:

Nitrates/Ammonia: 0
Salinity 1.024
Temp: 82
Copper 0
Calcium 400

She gets a pretty varied diet from spirulina, krill, shrimp, seaweed, garlic pellets...
She does slide between my rocks constantly though. She slides under them, and she sometimes backs up into them. She looks like an idiotic fish because she's super hyper it seems.

 

[DustyReefer]

I have seen this a lot in blue tangs, believe it or not I have even seen one much worse. Could be from several things:

1. Lack of greens in the diet (as others have said) or otherwise poor nutrition. Blue tangs are one of the tangs that are planktivores in nature unlike most other tangs, so it can be hard to get them to eat greens (and IMO, they are not as dependent on greens in their diet as other tangs for this reason).

2. HLLE from poor water quality and/or stress. I hate to bring this up on a tang thread, but... how big is the tank he is in? Also what are your water parameters. This is also what people were pointing to asking about the carbon as carbon use has been reported to cause HLLE (this is hardly still debated and plenty of people run carbon and are fine though).

3. Blue tangs are just stupid and they scratch themselves up. They wedge themselves under rocks, in tight spaces, etc. I used to work in a fish store and we stopped ordering them because they would come in, scratch themselves up, and then nobody would buy them. One of the reasons I'll never have this fish is I am particular about my fish looking "perfect" and that rarely seems to happen with blue tangs.

The carbon in terms of HLLE is one of my bigger concerns, not saying that it's the cause. But if say you just took the carbon and placed it in the tank without thoroughly rinsing it all the particulate carbon washes right out and into the water, and that's why I could see it leading to HLLE. Also you brought up some other very valid points about stress and tank size. She says the hippo is always "hyper" maybe it's due to constrained tank size that's stressing the fish out. Also I agree that the hippo tangs don't rely on as much greens as most other tangs, and are much more carnivorous than most, but a complete lack of any greens in its diet could cause problems.

 

[brittanysmith18]

She's hyper when one of my other fish comes around her (fire goby), other than that she's happy just sliding between rocks. She's a very greedy eater though and will rapidly swim to get as much food as she can. She's not very big, but since I added more rock, she has become more hyper.

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

Bad HLLE!! soak all the food in Selcon and try some Formula 2 flakes soaked in order to get him liking greens more. After that soak nori cut into strips and that should get him weened onto better foods as well.

 

[brittanysmith18]

I do feed Formula 2 flakes currently. How do I test for HLLE?

 

[brittanysmith18]

Meaning... how do I get rid of it out of my tank, or know that's the cause..etc

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

HLLE (Head and Lateral Line Erosion) is a thing that happens to tang and some other sensitive fish in captivity. Some people blame poor diet, carbon dust, flow issues, and even the low level voltage in the tanks. I have found over the years, that any bit of erosion heals quickly when I feed food soaked in Selcon, which is a nutritional additive found in a small pink bottle.

My lavender Tang will get spots start to form, and when it first happened it looked like flesh eating bacteria, they call it "Hole in the Head Disease" as well. Selcon treated food fixed him after 3 weeks, and to be honest, I haven't seen any erosion in months. I think everyone should use Selcon additive for health, my reef club does now.

 

[brittanysmith18]

Will my LFS have selcon? I definitely feed my fish a very varied diet, and the water parameters and flow are decent, and I'm adding a powerhead as soon as it arrives in the mail thats 800gph, so my flow will be even better. I'm not sure about the voltage. I do use carbon in my filters to remove ammonia and they've always been great to me. I've gone a month or two without carbon when treating the fish with prazi-pro and I didn't notice a difference in the tangs appearance. I've been trying to help her since I got her. This HLLE thing is a new thing I just heard of today!

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

Ahhhh, yeah HLLE only afects one of my three tangs and that was mostly from December-May this year and I wasn't using carbon or having stray voltage. It IS however, a very real malady in tangs.

As for your LFS having it or not I don't know. Mine stores didn't carry it until I asked them to and started promoting it with my friends. After opening it needs to be refrigerated or it gets yucky, but it lasts a long time.

I dose .5ml into a shot glass with tank water and foods for about 10-15 minutes then feed.

 

[brittanysmith18]

Where else would I find it??

Also, how do I find out if I haves stray voltage. I mean I have a voltage finder, but what would I put the anode and cathode as??? Because I only want to mess with the carbon if it is the problem because the carbon has done wonders with ammonia levels.

 

[Ostara]

2. HLLE from poor water quality and/or stress. I hate to bring this up on a tang thread, but... how big is the tank he is in? Also what are your water parameters. This is also what people were pointing to asking about the carbon as carbon use has been reported to cause HLLE (this is hardly still debated and plenty of people run carbon and are fine though).

I also generally like to avoid this until at least other avenues have been explored, but in this case I think it may be relevant.

Is this your 55 gallon, and has the fish lived there for all four years? It could easily be a combination of factors... it's worth looking at all of them. Most fish with HLLE seem to have had poor diets, as mentioned. I can't really make out what yours eats exactly since it's spread across so many posts. Is it only flakes? No frozen, seaweed, or pellets? If the diet is adequate I would look at some of the other things mentioned: carbon usage (what brand do you use?), potential stress from tankmates, and yes, the size of the tank and rockwork/available swimming space.

Also, Selcon can be purchased online from Foster and Smith. It is always a good thing to have on hand.

 

[brittanysmith18]

It's diet consists of a mixture of flakes, frozen spirulina and krill, freeze dried shrimp, garlic pellets and green seaweed.

I use pre-built carbon filters that fit my filter system, probably Marineland I believe. The fish have not lived in this tank all 4 years. They were in a 12 gallon tank for the first few months (not all these fish as obviously that's way too many), I had the tang in the 12 gallon tank. I noticed the change in color back then. It progressed slowly over time. I will get Selcon ASAP then. I am trying everyone's suggestions as well as tomorrow I will test for stray voltage. I don't know how to set the probes though..