prob with my tang

[jonneedshelp85]

recently i purchased a powder blue tang while i already had a sailfin in my 55 gallon i had once before adjusted two fish to each other and thought i would give it a try. well about three days into the venture my powder blue was being harrassed by the sailfin tang. shortly after he developed ich with the help of cleaner shrimp ect. i though we had it under control but i woke up a day later and the powder blue was dead. now my sailfin tang has small holes in his head around his eyes & forehead going back to about the gills was wondering if anyone might know of anything like that just wondering thanks for the help..

 

[DonW]

Sounds to me like you have two totally stressed out fish. Enough said.

Don

 

[jonneedshelp85]

have you ever heard of hlle or anything like that

 

[ronj]

Welcome to Reefrontiers !!! hope i can help..........ok, like you said,that is exactly what it sounds like(head and lateral line erosion)..what are you feeding your sailfin??? it should consist of some dried nori(seaweed), maybe Formula Two by Ocean Nutrition(i like the frozen), and some spirulina .....you should mainly give it the nori soaked in vitamins to graze on...Zoe and Zoecon are the combo that i use....the vitamins are necessary and will help..try to give it a variety of these, but the seaweed should be its' main diet...it could also be related to water quality problems...i would do several good size water changes and get the diet right immediately, if not already...what are your water parameters????? (ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,ph,alk,salinity,temp)

 

[DonW]

have you ever heard of hlle or anything like that

Yes! The chain of events you posted show signs of stress. Tangs are easily stressed. Stress causes there immune system to be low. Common problems, blue ones get ick and die and sails get hille and lateral lin disease. Both are usually induced by stress.
The combination of those two fish in such a small tank is bound to increase stress. The sail although it may have looked fine before hand was probably in poor health to begin with. A qt and treatment is the first course of action for the sail in a much larger qt tank. Neither of those fish will do well in a 55. After you add lr there is little to no swimming area. Tangs are free swimming grazers that require alot of space and food.

Don

 

[ronj]

OMG!!! i must have missed the 55g part...i didn't realize they were in a tank of that size...i agree with Don, the sailfin needs a much larger tank, but you should go ahead and try to help it if possible...check your water!!!!! start feeding vitamins!! go ahead and do several water changes over the next week or two...another possibility is to give it to someone or trade it to someone with a larger tank with really good water quality

 

[shallowreef]

A 55 is cutting it really short for a fish that loves to swim. Maybe as a baby it would be okay but once that fish hits 2" it should be time to look for a bigger tank or time to trade it in for something else.

 

[jonneedshelp85]

thanks for all the help guys my water levels are all fine and i use a variety of foods using dried seaweed as the base for my meals i have been looking to move up to a 120 pre drilled alllowing my fish more room to swim, but you guys have basically reinforced what i had previously thought. but along with the hille or head and latteral line disease do they usually get a glaze over the eyes or are there any oher signs that he may be getting sick with this.
thanks for the help

 

[ronj]

does it have a glaze over its eyes????? the HHLE will normally show up as pits on its face and/or the lateral line will start to erode...are you sure about the water??? doing some large WC"s could seriously help the problem out, if it isn't because of nutritional problems!!

 

[jonneedshelp85]

as far as the food goes i start with the dried seaweed then i use omega flakes along with seaweed pellets and then twice a week i do the frozen entrees, did the first of two large water changes 15 gal that i plan to do this week anything else that you guys can think of i have heard of chemicals that you can add but i am wiery to add chemicals to my tank for any reason. help me out if ya can thanks again

 

[shallowreef]

Well if you can i would try and QT the tangs and medicate them. There are a lot of different meds available today so just ask a LFS what they would recomend using. QTing is most likely your best bet as of now. Clouded eyes are usually signs of a bacteria infection. I wouldn't wait around to long to QT your fish either.

 

[DonW]

How big is this fish? I'm not a big fan of all that processed food, not sure about the value but the polution levels are going to be high. I can tell you mine eats a 10 x10 sheet of nori every morning and 5x10 every night. Both he shares with a little 3" pruple tang. Sails are very suseptible to LLD and need to be kept fat.

Don

 

[ronj]

can tell you mine eats a 10 x10 sheet of nori every morning and 5x10 every night

holy crap!!!! i feed mine about a 2x2 or 3x3 inch piece at a time......my two small ones are 2 1/2 and 3 inches.....i feed them 3x daily....the yellowbelly is about 5 inches...i feed him a tad bit more than them!! if it is just pitting on the tangs face, it is most likely HLLE...if there are other symptoms, what are they???

 

[DonW]

holy crap!!!! i feed mine about a 2x2 or 3x3 inch piece at a time......my two small ones are 2 1/2 and 3 inches.....i feed them 3x daily....the yellowbelly is about 5 inches...i feed him a tad bit more than them!! if it is just pitting on the tangs face, it is most likely HLLE...if there are other symptoms, what are they???

Geeze feed those fish

Don

 

[ronj]

the two smaller hippo's don't even eat what i put in each of their tanks..the pieces that i put in the tank in the morning are still there hours later normally...the yellowbelly is a different story..he eats it within a few seconds!

 

[jonneedshelp85]

well they are both very well feed and completely fat i am going to go to my lfs to get more water for another water change and see what i can find out about meds thanks again for all the help

 

[Brenden]

I alternate rubbing garlic, zoe, on nori every other time I feed and let it soak in for about 15- 30 minutes before adding to the tank. I would reduce the flake and pellets down to about once a week. When you do feed it also soak it in vitamins. Everything you have described sounds like it is due to stress and lack of nutrition. Alternate soaking your frozen and flake in selcon and zoe for a while and see if it does not start to clear up.

 

[ronj]

the meds may not be what it needs..they could end up harming it if it is misdiagnosed!!!!JMHO...another thought...find out what kind of water and salt the LFS is using, and also how often they change the filters if they have an RO unit..the water may be bad at the source!

 

[jonneedshelp85]

well i have caught them many times with high nitrate levels at the lfs and also once with high salinity every time i have gave them the heads up only prob with all this is that other lfs's are pretty far and require an hour drive were this isnt always a prob but for the routine wc is a bit out of reach. But i am very careful when buying to have it checked or to do it myself but i have found bad water to be a prob before

 

[balogh03]

for bacterial infections i had used melafix from AP auquatics, it seems to work pretty good. but i also had a larger tank. what LFS is it?