Epithelial thinning on Biota yellow tang?

[Ashwinclement]

Hi @Jay Hemdal , could you take a look and confirm if its the epithelial thinning thing on my biota yellow tang. I don't think its nutrition issue, I feed LRS nori every other day and frozen daily, his belly is fat all the time. I have been running red sea carbon and after I noticed this, I have removed it, and have been soaking nori with selcon and vitachem. I see no improvement even after two months of no carbon and feeding selcon and vitachem soaked nori. He did not come to me like this, when I bought him, there was only a teeny-tiny white spot near the eye. It seemed to have developed as he grew. I just wanted to confirm if its a epithelial thinning issue, which I understand is just cosmetic, so I can stop selcon soaking nori all the time and start adding carbon back. @Biota_Marine

 

[SlugSnorter]

BUMP

Maybe something parasitic?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi @Jay Hemdal , could you take a look and confirm if its the epithelial thinning thing on my biota yellow tang. I don't think its nutrition issue, I feed LRS nori every other day and frozen daily, his belly is fat all the time. I have been running red sea carbon and after I noticed this, I have removed it, and have been soaking nori with selcon and vitachem. I see no improvement even after two months of no carbon and feeding selcon and vitachem soaked nori. He did not come to me like this, when I bought him, there was only a teeny-tiny white spot near the eye. It seemed to have developed as he grew. I just wanted to confirm if its a epithelial thinning issue, which I understand is just cosmetic, so I can stop selcon soaking nori all the time and start adding carbon back. @Biota_Marine

IDK - I’ve mostly seen that issue on younger tank raised tangs, it it is more diffuse and not concentrated along the lateral line like this one. I’d say this is carbon induced HLLE, and I’ve found that simply removing the carbon doesn’t always stop the progression of it - I worry that there is still some carbon dust in tanks after the carbon has been pulled.
Jay

 

[Ashwinclement]

Thanks for your feedback, i will keep the carbon out of the system, any way to remove carbon dust out of the water? And in your experience is this condition reversible? I have seen claims where it can be cured and others say its scarred for life.

 

[Spare time]

IDK - I’ve mostly seen that issue on younger tank raised tangs, it it is more diffuse and not concentrated along the lateral line like this one. I’d say this is carbon induced HLLE, and I’ve found that simply removing the carbon doesn’t always stop the progression of it - I worry that there is still some carbon dust in tanks after the carbon has been pulled.
Jay

I wonder if adding a flocculant to the water with very fine filter socks would help with that

 

[Ashwinclement]

Thats sounds like a good idea, i will look into that

 

[Spare time]

I had a tang get hlle, which I think was because I put rox in a reactor that wasn't designed for rox and some of it grinded up. I did I think 20 gallon water change on my 75 (I can't remember) and then added dr tims clear up. I also soaked food in brightwell fish omega amino soak. I don't know what worked, but it went away and healed up nicely.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I wonder if adding a flocculant to the water with very fine filter socks would help with that

IDK - we were able to stop additional issues by replacing all the tank substrate, and good siphoning of the tank bottom.

Actually curing the problem eludes me fairly often…

Jay

 

[Ashwinclement]

Tomorrow is water change day, so i will change 25% water with good siphoning of the substrate. I am wondering if dr tims clear up is reef safe, product sites don't mention that specifically.

 

[Spare time]

Tomorrow is water change day, so i will change 25% water with good siphoning of the substrate. I am wondering if dr tims clear up is reef safe, product sites don't mention that specifically.

It is

 

[Biota_Marine]

Tomorrow is water change day, so i will change 25% water with good siphoning of the substrate. I am wondering if dr tims clear up is reef safe, product sites don't mention that specifically.

Hello, Ashwin, I'm sorry your tang is developing lateral line issues.

Have you looked into miracle mud? Anecdotally, it's been great for lateral line erosion. I've personally "cured" fish with lateral line erosion much worse than this, so it can be done! Usually these fish were donations that were removed from their original environment. I hope you can find the cause and the cure, your fish is beautiful and you obviously care a great deal for it. - Felicia

 

[Ashwinclement]

I just realized the media block that came with XP Aqua Sumpless ATO is a chemical media block possibly containing "not so good quality" carbon, for some reason I always thought it was just a porous bio media. I have removed that, performed 25% water change with siphoning of substrate. I am going to use DIY Coral snow in regular intervals with hopes that it will remove the carbon dust in the water column. Continue feeding selcon and vitachem soaked nori and see things improve in a few months. I will also take a look into the miracle mud. Thanks for the all help everyone!