HLLE in Yellow Tang

Zoajohn

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Within the past 2 weeks my yellow tang has developed HLLE somehow. The tang has been in the system since November and has always been fat and healthy with a big appetite. Now while having HLLE, he is really not eating any foods whether it be pellets, mysis, or nori. He does still pick at rocks some. I am not too sure what caused the HLLE, but I have removed carbon already.

I am running a UV for dinos with a mag pump in the display, so I got a multimeter to test for stray voltage. With the pump running i was measuring 6 volts. Turning off reduced to 4 volts. After this I decided to test other equipment. Found that with my heater off, it drops from 4 to between 0 and 2. Would 4 volts really be enough to cause HLLE? Everything else in the tank is fine and I don't get shocked or anything while working in there.

The UV has been off for 12 hrs so I'm going to keep an eye on the tang to see if that helped.
 

vetteguy53081

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A lot of the time, this stems from poor diet and/or water quality
Assure your- ammonia, nitrate, salinity, ph and water temperature are in range and not elevated
For diet, butt selcon vitamins and garlic extract to the foods alternating each day and feed at least:
Spirulina brine shrimp
Mysis shrimp
LRS herbivore diet
Formula 2 flake and frozen
Small plankton
Hikari veggie diet
Nori seaweed basted with garlic extract
 
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Zoajohn

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A lot of the time, this stems from poor diet and/or water quality
Assure your- ammonia, nitrate, salinity, ph and water temperature are in range and not elevated
For diet, butt selcon vitamins and garlic extract to the foods alternating each day and feed at least:
Spirulina brine shrimp
Mysis shrimp
LRS herbivore diet
Formula 2 flake and frozen
Small plankton
Hikari veggie diet
Nori seaweed basted with garlic extract
I do soak foods in selcon. Perhaps it could be from raising nutrients to combat dinos as well. Also dosing phyto daily. Still curious if the lower stray voltage could play a part, but I've seen many on here with higher levels that haven't had problems.
 

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Use of activated carbon is thought of as a cause of HLLE. Are you running carbon?
 
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Jay Hemdal

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Can you post a picture of the fish? HLLE will not cause a fish to stop feeding, there is something else going on. Stray voltage does not cause HLLE, and what you are seeing is most likely just minor induced voltage. Every aquarium should be plugged into a GFCI for human safety.
Jay
 
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Zoajohn

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Can you post a picture of the fish? HLLE will not cause a fish to stop feeding, there is something else going on. Stray voltage does not cause HLLE, and what you are seeing is most likely just minor induced voltage. Every aquarium should be plugged into a GFCI for human safety.
Jay
Here’s a pic. Appears to be text book HLLE but I could be wrong. I am on GFCI
 

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Jay Hemdal

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That is a related issue called epithelial thinning. It’s cause isn’t known. I see it in small, tank raised YT.
Any chance of getting a picture under white light?
Jay
 
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Zoajohn

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That is a related issue called epithelial thinning. It’s cause isn’t known. I see it in small, tank raised YT.
Any chance of getting a picture under white light?
Jay
Any treatment methods for that? For sure pic attached
 

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Jay Hemdal

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No treatment that I know of other than good diet, avoid carbon and let it grow larger. True HLLE in YT shows as eroded fins, and then eroded skin (still yellow though) above the lateral line along its back.

Jay
 
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Zoajohn

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No treatment that I know of other than good diet, avoid carbon and let it grow larger. True HLLE in YT shows as eroded fins, and then eroded skin (still yellow though) above the lateral line along its back.

Jay
It is not eating anything I feed currently. It doesn't look like it has lost weight though which is good.
 

Jay Hemdal

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Yes, that issue needs to be dealt with ASAP. Fish can look good for a long period without food, but they tend to use the glycogen in their liver for energy. Once that reaches a certain point, there is no recovering from that.
What foods have you tried?
How long have you had it?
Have you treated with anything yet?
Any other fish in with it?
Jay
 
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Zoajohn

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Yes, that issue needs to be dealt with ASAP. Fish can look good for a long period without food, but they tend to use the glycogen in their liver for energy. Once that reaches a certain point, there is no recovering from that.
What foods have you tried?
How long have you had it?
Have you treated with anything yet?
Any other fish in with it?
Jay
Current foods:
LRS Reef Frenzy
Frozen Mysis
Formula 2 Pellets
Selcon soaking is the only additive

I have had the tang since november, and it would eat anything and everything voraciously. It has not been feeding for 1.5-2 weeks now.

Other fish are 3 lyretail anthias, leopard wrasse, mandarin. No aggression from any towards the Tang.

I have not treated the tang with anything. Just removed carbon and took UV offline.
 

Jay Hemdal

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Current foods:
LRS Reef Frenzy
Frozen Mysis
Formula 2 Pellets
Selcon soaking is the only additive

I have had the tang since november, and it would eat anything and everything voraciously. It has not been feeding for 1.5-2 weeks now.

Other fish are 3 lyretail anthias, leopard wrasse, mandarin. No aggression from any towards the Tang.

I have not treated the tang with anything. Just removed carbon and took UV offline.
The YT had been feeding on these foods, and I would expect that species to normally feed on them, so the lack of appetite is a serious change. Unfortunately, I don't see any apparent reason for that to have happened. As I mentioned, HLLE won't cause a fish to stop feeding. Serious disease issues will, but by this time, I would expect that symptoms would have begun to show in your other fish as well.

The only thing I can see is that I don't see anywhere that you are trying dried algae (nori). Have you tried that yet? If not, I think you should.

If that fails, I'm just not sure what else to try. There are rare cases where a fish stops feeding due to a blockage in its mouth or throat. In those cases though, the fish will nose up to food like it wants to eat, but then shy away. If a fish just simply ignores the food as it floats by, that is more a sign of systemic disease, but without a secondary symptom, I just don't know what it could be.

Jay
 
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Zoajohn

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The YT had been feeding on these foods, and I would expect that species to normally feed on them, so the lack of appetite is a serious change. Unfortunately, I don't see any apparent reason for that to have happened. As I mentioned, HLLE won't cause a fish to stop feeding. Serious disease issues will, but by this time, I would expect that symptoms would have begun to show in your other fish as well.

The only thing I can see is that I don't see anywhere that you are trying dried algae (nori). Have you tried that yet? If not, I think you should.

If that fails, I'm just not sure what else to try. There are rare cases where a fish stops feeding due to a blockage in its mouth or throat. In those cases though, the fish will nose up to food like it wants to eat, but then shy away. If a fish just simply ignores the food as it floats by, that is more a sign of systemic disease, but without a secondary symptom, I just don't know what it could be.

Jay
I have been offering nori as well with no interest in that either. All other fish appear to be healthy and are eating like normal. I have noticed the yellow tang is keeping his mouth open along with rapid breathing. I added an airstone in case it was an O2 issue, but doesn't seem to be helping either. Would it be more harmful than helpful to try metro in a hospital tank for possible internal parasites or bacterial infection?
 

vetteguy53081

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Mouth open and rapid breathing in SOME cases a
Can be ammonia poisoning, low oxygen or high nitrates.
I would take a water sample to a trusted LFS and have them test the water for you and see what readings they get and to compare with yours.
Add oxygen if you can as simple as adding a pump and air stone
Flukes is also a possibility
 
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Zoajohn

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Bumping this back up. The tang still isn't eating. I picked up some green seaweed with garlic extract in addition to nori I was already offering, and it isn't showing interest in that either. I've found a thread from years ago where the OP's tang looked and behaved the exact same way as mine, and it began feeding again after some time. Thread here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/sick-yellow-tang-w-pictures-id-please.223636/

Is there anything I can treat the tang with in a QT tank that might help? Really don't want to lose this guy. @Humblefish do you have any suggestions?
 
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Zoajohn

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The tang nosed up to food for the first time in 2 weeks this morning. He attempted to eat a piece of reef frenzy, but spat it out and had what looked like a seizure - he spasmed twice after spitting it out. It was the weirdest thing, but the only good move towards eating he has made...

Anyone think this could possibly be mouth damage? His epithelial thinning has been progressing too unfortunately, but not terribly fast. If he could get food down I'm pretty sure that would help it
 
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Zoajohn

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Well I can honestly say that I was expecting my next update on this thread to be him dying, but this morning out of nowhere I observed it picking at algae and actually eating for the first time in 4 weeks. It's mouth is also closed and breathing slowed to normal. Hoping I can get it back eating frozen food and algae sheets

@Jay Hemdal
 
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