Hippo with HLLE?

[clhardy5]

I have a hippo tang that's been in my tank for 2.5 years. Over the last month or so, he has developed a 'mark' above his eye. I'm wondering if it HLLE?

I do not run any carbon in the tank. Feed a variety of frozen, pellet, live, and flake food. And he gets Nori daily.

I am currently running the tank a little 'dirty' while I battle a dinoflagellates problem. Nitrate is currently 23. PO4 .15. Alk 8.3, Magnesium 1290, Calcium 453, Ph ranges from 8-8.3

I'll attach a video....All the fish are crowding the nori clip because I was holding a piece in my hand while to get the chicken Hippo to come to the front. I took a still of him as well, but it is a little blurry. Hopefully someone can give me an ID on his mark, and some advice on what else I can do to stop it?

Video of Tang

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I have a hippo tang that's been in my tank for 2.5 years. Over the last month or so, he has developed a 'mark' above his eye. I'm wondering if it HLLE?

I do not run any carbon in the tank. Feed a variety of frozen, pellet, live, and flake food. And he gets Nori daily.

I am currently running the tank a little 'dirty' while I battle a dinoflagellates problem. Nitrate is currently 23. PO4 .15. Alk 8.3, Magnesium 1290, Calcium 453, Ph ranges from 8-8.3

I'll attach a video....All the fish are crowding the nori clip because I was holding a piece in my hand while to get the chicken Hippo to come to the front. I took a still of him as well, but it is a little blurry. Hopefully someone can give me an ID on his mark, and some advice on what else I can do to stop it?

Video of Tang

Tough to see clearly, but the still picture does seem to show HLLE. Carbon is the usual cause, and the only one to have been proven through research. However, asymmetrical HLLE (on one side of the fish) is extremely rare, I've only seen one other case. Sailfin tangs are much more predisposed to developing HLLE than hepatus tangs are, and yours looks fine. Combing those two facts makes me stray away from classic HLLE as a diagnosis. There is another issue called epithelial thinning that can produce similar lesions. Nobody knows anything about that though, only that it isn't regular HLLE. One study implicated heavy metals in the water as a couse, but obviously not in this case as that would have killed your corals.

Jay