Left side of Tang scarred.

[William Spak]

Hey all. I recently added a tang to my system, and he seemed to be doing well, until today I noticed he had scarring on his side.

The first image is the left (scarred) side, you can see his skin is almost kind of bleached. His fin is also not in good condition.

This is what he normally looks like, it's his right side.



I have two clowns in the tank as well, I'm thinking that they could be getting aggressive towards him. Anything I should do to help him out?

Thanks,
Will

 

[vetteguy53081]

Healing of scars happen quickly in saltwater setting. keep an eye on it to assure its a scar and not infection. You can give fish a freshwater dip if it irritates him.
In the mean time, assure water quaility is good and do add selcon liquid vitamin to its food and 1-2x per week, garlic extract.
Foods:
sm plankton
mysis shrimp
nori seaweed basted with garlic
Formula 2 flake and frozen
Spirulina brine shrimp
LRS herbivore diet

 

[William Spak]

Healing of scars happen quickly in saltwater setting. keep an eye on it to assure its a scar and not infection. You can give fish a freshwater dip if it irritates him.
In the mean time, assure water quaility is good and do add selcon liquid vitamin to its food and 1-2x per week, garlic extract.
Foods:
sm plankton
mysis shrimp
nori seaweed basted with garlic
Formula 2 flake and frozen
Spirulina brine shrimp
LRS herbivore diet

Ok! If you don't mind I have like a bunch of questions...

Do you have any ideas as to what caused this scarring? How will I be able to tell if it's an infection, and if it is irritating him? Also, I have VitaChem, but not Selcon, I think they do the same thing? What specific things should I be checking for in the water quality? I have garlic for reef tanks, should I dose daily? And, finally, how often should I feed him?

 

[William Spak]

Another note guys, at night he stays in a cave thats full of bristle worms at night.. could that be the cause of his scars? If so.. what eats bristle worms?

 

[SuncrestReef]

It's difficult to tell from your photos. Could it be HLLE? Here's a clear photo of my Kole Tang when it was suffering from HLLE, likely caused by active carbon. This left permanent pitted scars.

 

[William Spak]

It's difficult to tell from your photos. Could it be HLLE? Here's a clear photo of my Kole Tang when it was suffering from HLLE, likely caused by active carbon. This left permanent pitted scars.

My purple tang in my other tank has HLLE, this more looks like hes been scratching himself against pavement.

 

[vetteguy53081]

It's difficult to tell from your photos. Could it be HLLE? Here's a clear photo of my Kole Tang when it was suffering from HLLE, likely caused by active carbon. This left permanent pitted scars.

This is HLLE and a vitamin deficiency - Nor scarring. As stated above, assure water quality is good and do add selcon liquid vitamin to its food and 1-2x per week, garlic extract.
feed the following Foods:
sm plankton
mysis shrimp
nori seaweed basted with garlic
Formula 2 flake and frozen
Spirulina brine shrimp
LRS herbivore diet