Yellow belly regal acting weird

[Haunted]

Hi guys I'm new here, have a 180 gal mixed reef, recently my yellow belly regal/blue tang has been acting stressed.

He hides behind the rockwork swimming in place and opening and closing his mouth rapidly, he's also got a grayish pallor on his belly and on his body where his fins collapse. He also stopped eating pellets but will eat mysis which I give with selcon though not much

Nitrate was abit higher then I like so I thought it might be that and did 2 water changes with no change. I've had this tang 5 or 6 years now and nothing new has been added to the tank in a year nor is there any aggression towards him.

I took 2 (low quality) videos though it's not very good due to him hiding whenever I get close so had to zoom





Anyone know what this might be?

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Doesn't look good, indeed. Can you get him into a quarantine tank?

 

[Haunted]

Doesn't look good, indeed. Can you get him into a quarantine tank?

Not likely he refuses to come out from behind the rockwork and wont go near the fish trap

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Looks like he's got some flesh missing on his nose or is that just an artifact of the video?

 

[4FordFamily]

Looks like extreme HLLE it hexamita (hole in head) disease at a minimum, from what little I can see from the video.

 

[Haunted]

Looks like he's got some flesh missing on his nose or is that just an artifact of the video?

He has a space between the rockwork he used to ram himself into whenever I walked by and I think he scratched himself from it before he got used to me, the face stuff he's had for years, used to be worse but it never fully healed despite zoecon/selcon soaked foods

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Have you checked for stray voltages in your tank?

The heavy breathing has me puzzled. Normally, that might be gill flukes, but you stated that nothing new has been added to the tank, right?

 

[Haunted]

Looks like extreme HLLE it hexamita (hole in head) disease at a minimum, from what little I can see from the video.

Isnt that more of a condition then a disease? Would that be likely to lead to him twitching or whatever hes doing? Hes had the face spots since forever due to ramming himself into the rockwork at the first sign of a person, its healed alot since then but that last spot on his face never did

 

[Haunted]

Have you checked for stray voltages in your tank?

The heavy breathing has me puzzled. Normally, that might be gill flukes, but you stated that nothing new has been added to the tank, right?

No nothing at all in over a year, I havent checked for stray voltage though, the heavy breathing had me confused as well I added 2 airstones and an extra wavemaker last week but no improvement

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I assume this is a reef aquarium, not a FOWLR?

 

[4FordFamily]

Flukes lead to twitching most often which would need to be confirmed via a freshwater dip in a large bucket. Look for small sesame seeds dropping off.

Hexameta may be itchy and cause that, too. It’s normal for hippos to wedge in rocks but they don’t scratch themselves doing it (not like that, anyway). My bet is on something else going on.

That’s an amazing checkerboard wrasse there, I have not seen one so beautiful. They’re aggressive little suckers.

@HotRocks check it out

 

[Haunted]

I assume this is a reef aquarium, not a FOWLR?

Yes I have some mushrooms, a brain, trumpet and zoas in there

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I agree with @4FordFamily. I think you will need to get him out of the tank to be able to do any treatments. If it is something transmissible like flukes, you would also be protecting the rest of your fish.

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

Beautiful fish, BTW!

 

[Haunted]

Flukes lead to twitching most often which would need to be confirmed via a freshwater dip in a large bucket. Look for small sesame seeds dropping off.

Hexameta may be itchy and cause that, too. It’s normal for hippos to wedge in rocks but they don’t scratch themselves doing it (not like that, anyway). My bet is on something else going on.

That’s an amazing checkerboard wrasse there, I have not seen one so beautiful. They’re aggressive little suckers.

@HotRocks check it out

I havent added anything to this tank in a year now, could flukes have been there hidden that long? I always assumed HLLE wasnt a fatal condition either, just that it could lead to other bacterial infections down the line. Could thar explain his grayish pallor or heavy breathing?

Thank you about the wrasse, shes super bold and will stare at me and swim about even when I'm working on things in the tank haha

 

[Haunted]

I agree with @4FordFamily. I think you will need to get him out of the tank to be able to do any treatments. If it is something transmissible like flukes, you would also be protecting the rest of your fish.

Is flukes likely even without any new additions? Getting him out would be crazy difficult if even possible

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

I havent added anything to this tank in a year now, could flukes have been there hidden that long? I always assumed HLLE wasnt a fatal condition either, just that it could lead to other bacterial infections down the line. Could thar explain his grayish pallor or heavy breathing?

Thank you about the wrasse, shes super bold and will stare at me and swim about even when I'm working on things in the tank haha

Sorry to belabor the point, but have you added anything at all including macroalgae, inverts, or anything else a hitchhiker could've have stolen a ride on?

 

[Haunted]

Sorry to belabor the point, but have you added anything at all including macroalgae, inverts, or anything else a hitchhiker could've have stolen a ride on?

No, purple tang was the very last thing added which was last year, no corals, no rocks, nothing

 

[AllSignsPointToFish]

No, purple tang was the very last thing added which was last year, no corals, no rocks, nothing

Well, I can say that, in my experience, when a fish is breathing that heavily and hiding in an established tank, they are in serious trouble.

 

[4FordFamily]

I havent added anything to this tank in a year now, could flukes have been there hidden that long? I always assumed HLLE wasnt a fatal condition either, just that it could lead to other bacterial infections down the line. Could thar explain his grayish pallor or heavy breathing?

Thank you about the wrasse, shes super bold and will stare at me and swim about even when I'm working on things in the tank haha

HLLE certainly can be fatal. It’s possinle for hexamita or flukes to remain for a long time and only impact fish in a weakened state (such as those heavily afflicted with HLLE).