Hippo Tang Diseased?

[Bob Lauson]

Is this Hippo Tang suffering from HLLE? She acts fine - eats well, active swimmer, lots of personality. My thought is, assuming HLLE, I need to feed more nori and more herbivore food.
She is in a tank with 3 other tangs - tomini, yellow, sailfin - some anthias, hawkfish, Blenny, clownfish, blue sided wrasse, and a small neon blue goby.
180 gallon tank, less than 5 ppm nitrate, 0.15 ppm phosphate. I do treat the tank with GAC from BRS.

 

[Bob Lauson]

 

[sarcophytonIndy]

Yes, looks like HLLE. How often do you feed? Do you have pics of your other tangs?

 

[mickeysreef <*))))<]

they mostly blame hlle on poor diet, and sometimes on cheap carbon. metro is indicated to treat hlle - in the rare case it is from parasite.

could also be stray voltage so a ground probe wouldnt hurt. ive read that sunlight can also help - feed more nori and treat food with selcon and beta glucan. you could also try live white worms

 

[Bob Lauson]

The other tangs look flawless. I feed them flake food with the auto feeder twice a day and four cubes of a variety of Ocean Nutrition frozen food:

 

[Bob Lauson]

I am going to get more consistent on putting some nori in algae clip and increase the Formula Two of the Ocean Nutrition cubes.

 

[Bob Lauson]

I don’t believe I have any stray voltage in the tank.

 

[HuduVudu]

No stray voltage ... that myth won't die.
Not food.
It is carbon usage that causes this.

 

[mickeysreef <*))))<]

ground probe is $10. not really a big deal to put one in

 

[Bob Lauson]

I ordered some selcon to soak the frozen food in. I’ve had this fish for 4 years and haven’t added any fish for 6 months or more. So I don’t think I have any parasites.

 

[HuduVudu]

ground probe is $10. not really a big deal to put one in

But it won't do anything for HLLE. Great if you don't want to get shocked everything else not so much.

 

[JayinToronto]

I don’t believe I have any stray voltage in the tank.

Do you have any submerged pumps?

You could do this to check:

How to Test for Stray Voltage

1. Purchase or borrow a voltage meter. ...
2. Turn the selector to "120 AC Voltage."
3. Insert the tip of the black probe into the third or "grounding" hole in an electrical outlet.
4. Insert the metal tip of the red probe into the aquarium water.
5. Watch the meter needle for any movement

Or just get a titanium grounding probe. They’re about 30 bucks then you never have to think about it again.

 

[Uncle99]

How long did it take to get to that extent?

 

[Bob Lauson]

I will also stop the GAC treatment for a while. I have mixed reviews on carbon being the cause of HLLE

 

[Bob Lauson]

How long did it take to get to that extent?

Several months.

 

[Bob Lauson]

Do you have any submerged pumps?

You could do this to check:

How to Test for Stray Voltage

1. Purchase or borrow a voltage meter. ...
2. Turn the selector to "120 AC Voltage."
3. Insert the tip of the black probe into the third or "grounding" hole in an electrical outlet.
4. Insert the metal tip of the red probe into the aquarium water.
5. Watch the meter needle for any movement

Or just get a titanium grounding probe. They’re about 30 bucks then you never have to think about it again.

Interesting...the digital meter shows 1.5 vac

 

[Uncle99]

Well if water quality is good, diet would be the next thinking.
I feed mine three times daily, a mix of flake, frozen brine,Mysis, and krill with a 4”x2” strip of nori once a day for grazing.