Back from vacation…. And Gem looks like this… can anyone diagnose (maybe HLLE)?

[ElderMillennial]

Went on vacation for 10 days.. came back to my Gem tang looking like this…. She had a small spot when we left, pretty much always had some weird thing on her… constantly bumping rocks, going into to tight spaces but I don’t think I this is that.
Parameters are fine. Not running charcoal (was running Red Sea until a month ago. I don’t run it all the time anyway). H2O change before i left and once when i was gone by my friend… owns an LFS so pretty sure nothing weird happened then. Running a UV while i was gone.

Any ideas… she did have HLLE right after I got her bcz of Charcoal. I switched to Red Sea from BRS and HLLE went away.

Also… I live in Central Florida, about an hour North of Orlando near Mt. Dora… if anyone knows of any Coral Clubs, Saltwater Aquarium Clubs etc…. In the area could you give me the information on them? Or how to find one.
Been reef keeping for ~10 years. I just moved to the area and it would be nice to be able to be around other people in the hobby. It keeps my engaged not only with the hobby, but with my tanks.
My Cobra has fallen victim to no gear heads around to talk shop with… my previous neighborhood everyone was a gear head. Working on everyone’s car, neighbors helping neighbors, it makes it more fun.
Would be nice to be able to replicate that with Reef Keeping….

Thank you very much for help with my Tang and Reef Clubs,
Brandon

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It does look like HLLE. It can look a bit different in Zebrasoma tangs. It does look like it is only affecting one side of the fish, I’ve only seen that once before. Stopping cabin use doesnt always stop the HLLE.
Jay

 

[ElderMillennial]

Any advice? Besides H20 changes and nutrition? Anything I can med her with?

She has had it once before… switched the carbon (from BRS to Red Sea).
did H2O changes EOD, and added in Selcon soaks to their Veggie Paper (Julian Sprung Green and Purple) as well as their frozen foods and their pellets.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Any advice? Besides H20 changes and nutrition? Anything I can med her with?

She has had it once before… switched the carbon (from BRS to Red Sea).
did H2O changes EOD, and added in Selcon soaks to their Veggie Paper (Julian Sprung Green and Purple) as well as their frozen foods and their pellets.

Good water quality and a good diet are supportive, but not curative for HLLE. In many cases, the best you will see is that the lesions stop growing/spreading. Here is an article I posted here on the topic:

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/head-and-lateral-line-erosion-hlle.784/


Jay

 

[ElderMillennial]

Thank you for the link. It was very informative.
Could the carbon in my RO be a cause if it too?
My train of thought is if it’s a potential issue while using it on the tank, may be an issue while making RO?

 

[dcal1985]

I would recommend soaking food in Selcon if you aren’t already. I had a Tomini develop a pretty solid case in QT and he’s doing great now.

edit: I see that you are indeed doing that.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thank you for the link. It was very informative.
Could the carbon in my RO be a cause if it too?
My train of thought is if it’s a potential issue while using it on the tank, may be an issue while making RO?

No - carbon used in RODI will not cause any issues, as that water is then pushed through the RO membrane, removing all carbon dust.

Jay