Help identifying black spots on Tang

midwestE · Mar 30, 2019

Looking to help out a reefer in our local group. He posted a picture of his hippo Tang earlier today. Any help would be appreciated, as he's had the guy "since he was less than the size of a penny"

His description:
"haven’t seen him scratching I had no ick or anything for the past year or so I was syphon the sand yesterday and stirred up the sand bed and this happened"

Thanks all

Hitman · Mar 30, 2019

Possibly black ich caused by stress.

Big G · Mar 30, 2019

Looks more like HLLE. Here's a great thread by Humblefish. As you scroll through, take a close look at the second fish down on the first set of pics.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hlle-head-lateral-line-erosion.259916/#post-3081938

Frtdrmrose7 · Mar 30, 2019

Big G said:
Looks more like HLLE. Here's a great thread by Humblefish. As you scroll through, take a close look at the second fish down on the first set of pics.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hlle-head-lateral-line-erosion.259916/#post-3081938

^^^i agree

midwestE · Mar 30, 2019

Thanks for the responses, will share

midwestE · Apr 2, 2019

Maybe was HLLE/stress related. 3 days later seemed to clear up. Had it been black ich I don't think it would have cleared that quickly.

From the reefer:

"Went away fed them seaweed and put some poly lab reef medic so I don’t know what cured maybe she got bit something"