Yellow Tang - scar?

[DmitryB]

Just noticed an odd white line on my Yellow Tang. Any idea what this is? He is by far the biggest bully in the tank, so I don't think he's bullied. The only fish that give him a run for his money during feeding are the newly introduced 2 Anthias. But I have not witnessed any aggression when I'm in the room. And he's swimming fine and ate well during feeding.

 

[mmorrison55]

Thats their lateral line.

I don’t know if it’s the start of hlle. If it is, I don’t think hlle is fatal. But let’s get the experts to weigh in.

#fishmedics

 

[mmorrison55]

 

[vetteguy53081]

Just noticed an odd white line on my Yellow Tang. Any idea what this is? He is by far the biggest bully in the tank, so I don't think he's bullied. The only fish that give him a run for his money during feeding are the newly introduced 2 Anthias. But I have not witnessed any aggression when I'm in the room. And he's swimming fine and ate well during feeding.

This is facial erosion known as HLLE which cause pits and flesh missing mainly in tangs, angels and some rabbitfish. It is often caused by poor water quality, high use of carbon, poor water quality (elevated nitrate and ammonia) and inadequate/poor diet. It is not life threating in any way but offers secondary infection in some cases.
Maintaining GOOD water quality and diet are often the fixes and with severe cases, some healing.
Some foods to feed tang are :
LRS herbivore diet
Formula 2 flake and frozen
TDO Pellets
small plankton
Hikari Marine cuisine
Ocean nutrition veggie diet
spirulina brine shrimp
mysis shrimp
Prime reef
Nori seaweed basted with garlic extract

 

[exnisstech]

epithelial thinning or hlle. Thinning isn't uncommon in biota yellows. I have two out of three that have it but it's mostly around the eyes so maybe hlle? @Jay Hemdal ?

 

[DmitryB]

This is facial erosion known as HLLE which cause pits and flesh missing mainly in tangs, angels and some rabbitfish. It is often caused by poor water quality, high use of carbon, poor water quality (elevated nitrate and ammonia) and inadequate/poor diet. It is not life threating in any way but offers secondary infection in some cases.
Maintaining GOOD water quality and diet are often the fixes and with severe cases, some healing.
Some foods to feed tang are :
LRS herbivore diet
Formula 2 flake and frozen
TDO Pellets
small plankton
Hikari Marine cuisine
Ocean nutrition veggie diet
spirulina brine shrimp
mysis shrimp
Prime reef
Nori seaweed basted with garlic extract

Ugh!

I do feed most of those foods. The only thing none of the Tangs in the tank are eating are any Nori/algae. I have Ogo on a clip and they're not touching it. I can soak the nori in garlic though.

Water quality... I do run carbon, though it's a couple of weeks old, but I will shut the media reactor off. I just tested water. Here are the results.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ugh!

I do feed most of those foods. The only thing none of the Tangs in the tank are eating are any Nori/algae. I have Ogo on a clip and they're not touching it. I can soak the nori in garlic though.

Water quality... I do run carbon, though it's a couple of weeks old, but I will shut the media reactor off. I just tested water. Here are the results.

Attachment does not show up and how are you testing your water?

 

[James CNM]

Feed plenty Nori. Ignore the scaremongering "lateral line" disease Just keep doing your regular maintenance as you do. If you use carbon step back from that, it is known for (Hole in the head or latteral line erosion!, no abrevations there ) Plenty Veg in the diet which is what lacks. When you see pink/reddish blotches on the body thats when you have to be concerned.

 

[mmorrison55]

All my tangs eat the green nori from two little fishies

 

[James CNM]

I feed my tangs with nori from Amazon. 10 sheets for under £2 . Have done for over twenty yrs

 

[Rob A]

All my fish gobble this nori. You can also shred up a bag of wal-mat seafood medley, a few sheets of nori, and flake or pellets as binder I freeze it and chop it into cubes. Almost all fish will go crazy for it.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Just noticed an odd white line on my Yellow Tang. Any idea what this is? He is by far the biggest bully in the tank, so I don't think he's bullied. The only fish that give him a run for his money during feeding are the newly introduced 2 Anthias. But I have not witnessed any aggression when I'm in the room. And he's swimming fine and ate well during feeding.

Can you repost a longer video under white lights? I’m struggling to see any scar. There is the regular white mid body bar, some slight epithelial thinning around the face and then the lateral line.

Here is an article on Head and Lateral Line Erosion that I wrote butt an offshoot to a research paper I wrote on the topic:

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

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

This video has some errors in it. Also, the picture of the yellow tang was taken (without my authorization) from my online article on epithelial thinning for CORAL magazine.

 

[mmorrison55]

This video has some errors in it. Also, the picture of the yellow tang was taken (without my authorization) from my online article on epithelial thinning for CORAL magazine.

Sorry. I didn’t realize they stole your intellectual property. Please feel free to have an admin remove the post. I assumed a video from humble would be above board.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Sorry. I didn’t realize they stole your intellectual property. Please feel free to have an admin remove the post. I assumed a video from humble would be above board.

No worries, it’s almost impossible to stop people from grabbing photos off the internet - I do it myself, but I restrict that to Wikimedia or other free source sites.
I had to laugh though, I thought, hey wait, I know that fish (grin). I think I took the pic almost 20 years ago…..

 

[DmitryB]

Attachment does not show up and how are you testing your water?

My readings tonight were (all Hanna checkers, except Salinity and ORP):

Nitrate: 11.4
Phosphate: 0.16
Ammonia: 0.04
Alk: 9.7
pH: 8.2
ORP: 290

I'm shutting off Carbon. (So basically, don't run carbon with Tangs??)

I have to figure out how to get them to eat nori/algae. I've got, like, 6 different varieties (including Ogo from my refugium), but they're not eating any of them! Don't see them even approaching the clips, like they don't even know what these things are.

 

[DmitryB]

epithelial thinning or hlle. Thinning isn't uncommon in biota yellows. I have two out of three that have it but it's mostly around the eyes so maybe hlle? @Jay Hemdal ?

It is a Biota Yellow Tang!

 

[DmitryB]

Can you repost a longer video under white lights? I’m struggling to see any scar. There is the regular white mid body bar, some slight epithelial thinning around the face and then the lateral line.

Here is an article on Head and Lateral Line Erosion that I wrote butt an offshoot to a research paper I wrote on the topic:

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

I used the word "scar" because I wasn't sure what else to call it. It's the white lines

Can you repost a longer video under white lights? I’m struggling to see any scar. There is the regular white mid body bar, some slight epithelial thinning around the face and then the lateral line.

Here is an article on Head and Lateral Line Erosion that I wrote butt an offshoot to a research paper I wrote on the topic:

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

I'll get a video under white lights tomorrow. I actually tried to do it tonight, but I recently swapped a damaged Hydra Edge light and it was not responding to my command to turn on the white lights. I gotta figure out what that's about.