Hippo tang white patch on the face

[An ngo]

I have blue hippo tang for 10 months. He eat a lot and very active. Couple days ago, i notice my fish start stay on the bottom of the tank and slide his face on sand bed. He still eat seim pretty well, but he tend to stay the sand bed more than swimming which not a good sign of my active fish. I saw his face has a scratch and the aree around gis eye turn white. What should I do to save my fish. Should I leave him there and take him out and what kind of treatment do I need to do. Please help, thanks

 

[cancun]

I have blue hippo tang for 10 months. He eat a lot and very active. Couple days ago, i notice my fish start stay on the bottom of the tank and slide his face on sand bed. He still eat seim pretty well, but he tend to stay the sand bed more than swimming which not a good sign of my active fish. I saw his face has a scratch and the aree around gis eye turn white. What should I do to save my fish. Should I leave him there and take him out and what kind of treatment do I need to do. Please help, thanks

Hi! Sorry about your Tang! Do you have any pics? Tank info? @Humblefish, @HotRocks, @4FordFamily will hopefully chime in. A good pic will really help.

 

[HotRocks]

Can you upload a pic of the fish?

Could be about anything at this point. Need to narrow down in order to have a solid treatment plan.

 

[JoshH]

Any pictures of him? What other fish do you have in the tank with him? I'll tag the #Reefsquad in here as well to get some other eyes on your situation. I would strongly suggest picking up some medications and getting a quarantine set up now so you can move quickly to treat it once we figure out what it might be.

 

[Crabs McJones]

^^ @JoshH and @HotRocks are pretty much on point. Following along to help in any way I can

 

[Brew12]

I saw his face has a scratch and the aree around gis eye turn white. What should I do to save my fish.

A picture would definitely help. Without a picture to see what is happening diagnosis is difficult. If a picture can't be taken, I would do a fresh water dip to check for flukes. They commonly attack the gills and eyes which may be why he is rubbing his face on the sand.

 

[cancun]

^^ @JoshH and @HotRocks are pretty much on point. Following along to help in any way I can

I agree! I am following along too! OP is in the right place! [emoji16]

 

[An ngo]

I can not take the picture until I come home, but how long should i dip and just a cup of RO??

 

[Brew12]

I can not take the picture until I come home, but how long should i dip and just a cup of RO??

There is a great video here.
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/video-how-to-do-a-freshwater-dip.214/

but basically, yes, a container with RO, matched to tank temperature. Leave the fish in for 5 minutes.

 

[An ngo]

Thanks guys, I will do that when I come home. My nitrate pretty high from last week ehich over 15. Is it a reason my tang like that. My other still doing fine except my hippo tang.

 

[Brew12]

Thanks guys, I will do that when I come home. My nitrate pretty high from last week ehich over 15. Is it a reason my tang like that. My other still doing fine except my hippo tang.

Nitrate at 15 is still low imo. I wouldn't expect nitrate to hurt a fish unless it is well over 100ppm.

 

[Paul B]

Nitrate at 15 is still low imo. I wouldn't expect nitrate to hurt a fish unless it is well over 100ppm.

My nitrate was about 160 for a couple of years. My fish never looked so good and were all spawning and doing the Macarana. Nitrate won't hurt fish unless you can put a pencil in your tank and it stands up.

Hippo tangs are very suseptable to HLLE which will not kill it but there is no cure. Of course without a picture he could have measles.

 

[An ngo]

I will take a picture after I come home

 

[An ngo]

Just came home after school and my tang is hiding inside the rock as usual. I try to poke him out but seem like he sleeping pretty well. I don’t want to stress him, so I will try to take picture asap. As I notice from yesterday, it look like HLLE to me, so in this case I just need to feed him more nutrient food right??

 

[Brew12]

Just came home after school and my tang is hiding inside the rock as usual. I try to poke him out but seem like he sleeping pretty well. I don’t want to stress him, so I will try to take picture asap. As I notice from yesterday, it look like HLLE to me, so in this case I just need to feed him more nutrient food right??

HLLE can be caused by quite a few things. Poor nutrition, parasites, stray voltages, or even being in too small of a tank. It is also very slow to heal but quality food is a good start.

 

[An ngo]

HLLE can be caused by quite a few things. Poor nutrition, parasites, stray voltages, or even being in too small of a tank. It is also very slow to heal but quality food is a good start.

Yes I agree bc my tank only 20 gal but I have too many fishes in there. I just adopt my cousin’s phantom clown fish which is 3 in that make my bioload pretty heavy, and this is a reason why my nirate going to high at this time. As my observation, my tang laid down on sand bed on the morning after the light just on and start swimming around whole day. That what I know due to my YI camera is set in front my tank. Is there any product to soak food into?

 

[Brew12]

Yes I agree bc my tank only 20 gal but I have too many fishes in there.

Yup, I would say this is the cause. Even a small blue tang won't do well in a tank under 90 gallons. My 2 year old blue tang is close to outgrowing my 187g system.
They are beautiful fish, but you should try to find a new bigger home for him. He will either die or he will start killing other fish. These are fish that are used to swimming large distances in the wild. They get very stressed in smaller systems.

 

[An ngo]

Yup, I would say this is the cause. Even a small blue tang won't do well in a tank under 90 gallons. My 2 year old blue tang is close to outgrowing my 187g system.
They are beautiful fish, but you should try to find a new bigger home for him. He will either die or he will start killing other fish. These are fish that are used to swimming large distances in the wild. They get very stressed in smaller systems.

I’m building a new system soon. It will be my sps dominant tank, but I would try to move him to my cousin new system which is 65gal only for clown and bulb anemone

 

[Brew12]

I would try to move him to my cousin new system which is 65gal only for clown and bulb anemone

I think that would be a good plan for now. I almost forgot your question... I've never used it but some people use a product called Selcon to soak their food in to add vitamins.

 

[An ngo]

I think that would be a good plan for now. I almost forgot your question... I've never used it but some people use a product called Selcon to soak their food in to add vitamins.

Thanks for your respone, I will feed him more nitrient to see what happen