Blue tang looks sick!!!!

[Studjunior]

Over the last couple weeks my blue tang which I've had for over 4 years started developing a while patch on its side. This patch has gotten a lot larger and one has developed on its other side as well. It is still eating and swimming but is not not look healthy and I think it is getting worse faster. I have been searching the web to try to identify what this is and if it can be treated (I have a reef tank, and very hard to set up a quarantine). All my other fish in my tank look great with no signs of stress. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! I hope the pic attached helps.

 

[Tahoe61]

Lateral line disease. Rule out the most common causes such as nutritional insufficiency and or decline in water quality.

 

[Humblefish]

Lateral line disease. Rule out the most common causes such as nutritional insufficiency and or decline in water quality.

Or cheap carbon/stray voltage.

 

[EZMAC114]

Or cheap carbon/stray voltage.

It is HLLE...I had the same thing happen to my Desjardini Sailfin tang but it didn't get that bad. What I did that stopped it was clean excess carbon out of the sump because I used chemipure elite and the carbon was so fine that it leaked. I switched to a different type of carbon and now everything is fine.

 

[Elegance Coral]

My opinion on HLLE;

Generally speaking, it's a nutritional deficiency. Tangs are vegetarians. They need their greens. Lots of them. Pretty much every day. I believe that most cases of HLLE are due to a shortage of greens in their diet. Even with plenty of greens in their diet, it's still possible for the fish to show signs of HLLE though. Other factors, like stress, can effect an animals nutritional requirements. Unfortunately, many factors can lead to stress. Poor water quality, aggressive tank mates, parasites, cramped living quarters.........
Carbon, if used correctly, should not be an issue. Tangs graze the rocks. If there is carbon dust on the rocks, the fish will be ingesting carbon. Doctors often give, poison and over dose victims, carbon to ingest. The goal is for the carbon to absorb the toxin reducing the amount entering the blood stream. When a healthy animals ingests carbon, the carbon will be absorbing valuable nutrition, robbing it from the animal, and potentially leading to nutritional deficiencies. For this reason, carbon should always be rinsed very very well before being used in our systems. In my personal systems, after rinsing, I run carbon in reactors and direct the discharge to a 100 micron filter sock.

Again. This is just my opinion
Peace
EC