Flame Angel White Face

[chicagoreefer1990]

Hi all,

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’ve had my 75 gallon saltwater tank for almost two years now.

In August I bought a flame angel from my LFS and put him in my quarantine tank with copper like I do all new fish now (I had an outbreak of something about a year ago and lost all of my fish, so I learned the hard way).

About a week later I noticed my flame angel’s one eye was cloudy. My LFS said to do a freshwater dip and some things fell off so they told me it was flukes. I put him in a new quarantine tank without copper and with a dose of Prazipro. I did two rounds of the Prazipro and he looked much better. He does have permanent damage to one eye from the flukes (it doesn’t move and I don’t think he can see out of it anymore).

I did a water change and planned to observe him for a week or two after the Prazipro to make sure the flukes were really gone. After a week I noticed his face turning white on both sides. The LFS said to do another dip and see if anything came off. I dipped him but saw nothing. I did another round of Prazipro to make sure. The white is getting worse now, but the fish is eating and swimming normally.

The LFS said it looks like HLLE and that I should just put him in my DT because it is likely because he has been in the quarantine tank so long (at this point it’s been almost a couple of months). I am nervous to put him in and infect all of my other fish with something. They told me to try a round of kanaplex and see if it is something bacterial.

Here is a video, you can see more so towards the end the white on both sides of his face. What do you all think? Does it look like HLLE or something else? Should I put him in the DT and see if it gets better? I don’t want to keep him in the QT any longer if that’s what is causing it but I also don’t want to infect my other fish with anything.

Thanks!

 

[chicagoreefer1990]

View attachment 20251018_195016_733494F0-9BF7-4D82-8936-3DAC70E794D4.mov

 

[vetteguy53081]

It does look like facial erosion. May be a reaction to coppersafe especially if you went with 2.5ppm.
What foods are you feeding it?
Assure water quality is good checking with reliable test kits

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi all,

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’ve had my 75 gallon saltwater tank for almost two years now.

In August I bought a flame angel from my LFS and put him in my quarantine tank with copper like I do all new fish now (I had an outbreak of something about a year ago and lost all of my fish, so I learned the hard way).

About a week later I noticed my flame angel’s one eye was cloudy. My LFS said to do a freshwater dip and some things fell off so they told me it was flukes. I put him in a new quarantine tank without copper and with a dose of Prazipro. I did two rounds of the Prazipro and he looked much better. He does have permanent damage to one eye from the flukes (it doesn’t move and I don’t think he can see out of it anymore).

I did a water change and planned to observe him for a week or two after the Prazipro to make sure the flukes were really gone. After a week I noticed his face turning white on both sides. The LFS said to do another dip and see if anything came off. I dipped him but saw nothing. I did another round of Prazipro to make sure. The white is getting worse now, but the fish is eating and swimming normally.

The LFS said it looks like HLLE and that I should just put him in my DT because it is likely because he has been in the quarantine tank so long (at this point it’s been almost a couple of months). I am nervous to put him in and infect all of my other fish with something. They told me to try a round of kanaplex and see if it is something bacterial.

Here is a video, you can see more so towards the end the white on both sides of his face. What do you all think? Does it look like HLLE or something else? Should I put him in the DT and see if it gets better? I don’t want to keep him in the QT any longer if that’s what is causing it but I also don’t want to infect my other fish with anything.

Thanks!

It could be epithelial thinning as opposed to full HLLE. The copper use is incidental to that. Carbon filtration can cause HLLE, but epithelial erosion can be caused by general stress.

I would dose it with prazi one more time and then move it out of the QT six hours later.

 

[chicagoreefer1990]

It does look like facial erosion. May be a reaction to coppersafe especially if you went with 2.5ppm.
What foods are you feeding it?
Assure water quality is good checking with reliable test kits

He eats a combo of frozen brine shrimp with algae and pellets, I usually alternate days. He seems to enjoy both and eats well.

Since it’s the quarantine tank, I don’t test it like I do my display tank, I just check ammonia, salinity and temp for the most part. Salinity has been 1.026, temp steady at 77 degrees and ammonia at 0. Been doing large water changes weekly because of all the medications.

 

[chicagoreefer1990]

It does look like facial erosion. May be a reaction to coppersafe especially if you went with 2.5ppm.
What foods are you feeding it?
Assure water quality is good checking with reliable test kits

He eats a combo of frozen brine shrimp with algae and pellets, I usually alternate days. He seems to enjoy both and eats well.

Since it’s the quarantine tank, I don’t test it like I do my display tank, I just check ammonia, salinity and temp for the most part. Salinity has been 1.026, temp steady at 77 degrees and ammonia at 0. Been doing large water changes weekly because of all the medications.

 

[chicagoreefer1990]

Hi all,

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’ve had my 75 gallon saltwater tank for almost two years now.

In August I bought a flame angel from my LFS and put him in my quarantine tank with copper like I do all new fish now (I had an outbreak of something about a year ago and lost all of my fish, so I learned the hard way).

About a week later I noticed my flame angel’s one eye was cloudy. My LFS said to do a freshwater dip and some things fell off so they told me it was flukes. I put him in a new quarantine tank without copper and with a dose of Prazipro. I did two rounds of the Prazipro and he looked much better. He does have permanent damage to one eye from the flukes (it doesn’t move and I don’t think he can see out of it anymore).

I did a water change and planned to observe him for a week or two after the Prazipro to make sure the flukes were really gone. After a week I noticed his face turning white on both sides. The LFS said to do another dip and see if anything came off. I dipped him but saw nothing. I did another round of Prazipro to make sure. The white is getting worse now, but the fish is eating and swimming normally.

The LFS said it looks like HLLE and that I should just put him in my DT because it is likely because he has been in the quarantine tank so long (at this point it’s been almost a couple of months). I am nervous to put him in and infect all of my other fish with something. They told me to try a round of kanaplex and see if it is something bacterial.

Here is a video, you can see more so towards the end the white on both sides of his face. What do you all think? Does it look like HLLE or something else? Should I put him in the DT and see if it gets better? I don’t want to keep him in the QT any longer if that’s what is causing it but I also don’t want to infect my other fish with anything.

Thanks!

It could be epithelial thinning as opposed to full HLLE. The copper use is incidental to that. Carbon filtration can cause HLLE, but epithelial erosion can be caused by general stress.

I would dose it with prazi one more time and then move it out of the QT six hours later.

Thanks for the advice! Would you advise not dosing the kanaplex then? I hadn’t done that yet, it was just recommended yesterday. Right now he is in a tank with no medication, I just did a 100% water change yesterday.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks for the advice! Would you advise not dosing the kanaplex then? I hadn’t done that yet, it was just recommended yesterday. Right now he is in a tank with no medication, I just did a 100% water change yesterday.

Hold of kanaplex for now especially not seeing a bacterial issue

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is a very insufficient diet. Add plankton, LRS Fish frenzy, mysis shrimp and TDO pellets

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I guess I’m questioning the need to isolate the angel. It may not have anything contagious, and holding it in an isolation tank is more stressful than the tank it was in.

In the video though, it was breathing fast. I attributed that to it just had being caught up. If that rapid breathing continues, it can be a sign of issues, including some types of flukes.

 

[chicagoreefer1990]

This is a very insufficient diet. Add plankton, LRS Fish frenzy, mysis shrimp and TDO pellets

Thank you- I picked up fish frenzy, TDO pellets, mysis shrimp today

 

[chicagoreefer1990]

I guess I’m questioning the need to isolate the angel. It may not have anything contagious, and holding it in an isolation tank is more stressful than the tank it was in.

In the video though, it was breathing fast. I attributed that to it just had being caught up. If that rapid breathing continues, it can be a sign of issues, including some types of flukes.

Yes he is not breathing like that anymore. He’s never been in the display tank, I had caught him there to move him to another same size QT because they suggested the kanaplex and I wanted to start with new water. He did have flukes when I first bought him