New blue tang

[littlefoxx]

Hey all. I just rescued a baby blue tang from a LFS. They had him for a month treating him before selling him. They told me he came from a customer who had him in a 55 gallon with other tangs and super bad water quality. He had been treated with copper and was in a tank running copper at the LFS for the month period. He has very beat up fins and a lot of scar marks/dents on his face and body. He also has a lot more black than most blue tangs. He also appears to be more round in body structure than the other blue tangs in the tank.

Of course being the person I am I immediately took interest in him and talked with the LFS about him. I just acclimated him to a 32 biocube (with two baby clowns to give him time to heal and keep an eye on him before moving him to DT). He swims well for how his fins look. I used seachem stress guard during the acclimation period.

I was just wondering if anyone has seen this before or who have tips on how to help him heal besides what Im currently doing? Just got him today. I want to do my very best for him and get him fully back to health and a happy fish!

 

[xiongsy]

You saved him and brought him home to a 32 gallon with a pair of clownfish along with LR? Lol. I think you should have just left him at the store imho.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey all. I just rescued a baby blue tang from a LFS. They had him for a month treating him before selling him. They told me he came from a customer who had him in a 55 gallon with other tangs and super bad water quality. He had been treated with copper and was in a tank running copper at the LFS for the month period. He has very beat up fins and a lot of scar marks/dents on his face and body. He also has a lot more black than most blue tangs. He also appears to be more round in body structure than the other blue tangs in the tank.

Of course being the person I am I immediately took interest in him and talked with the LFS about him. I just acclimated him to a 32 biocube (with two baby clowns to give him time to heal and keep an eye on him before moving him to DT). He swims well for how his fins look. I used seachem stress guard during the acclimation period.

I was just wondering if anyone has seen this before or who have tips on how to help him heal besides what Im currently doing? Just got him today. I want to do my very best for him and get him fully back to health and a happy fish!

What the store said caused it is indeed correct. Often this facial erosion known as HLLE which cause pits and flesh missing mainly in tangs, angels and some rabbitfish. It is often caused by poor water quality, high use of carbon, poor water quality (elevated nitrate and ammonia) and inadequate/poor diet. It is not life threating in any way but offers secondary infection in some cases.
Maintaining GOOD water quality and diet are often the fixes and with severe cases, some healing.
Some foods to feed tang are :
LRS herbivore diet
Formula 2 flake and frozen
TDO Pellets
small plankton
Hikari Marine cuisine
Ocean nutrition veggie diet
spirulina brine shrimp
mysis shrimp
Prime reef
Nori seaweed basted with garlic extract

Add selcon vitamins to foods occasionally. You will get some repair to face but dont expect full restoration

 

[littlefoxx]

You saved him and brought him home to a 32 gallon with a pair of clownfish along with LR? Lol. I think you should have just left him at the store imho.

No he is in there temporarily before going to main DT… as I said in the original post.

 

[littlefoxx]

What the store said caused it is indeed correct. Often this facial erosion known as HLLE which cause pits and flesh missing mainly in tangs, angels and some rabbitfish. It is often caused by poor water quality, high use of carbon, poor water quality (elevated nitrate and ammonia) and inadequate/poor diet. It is not life threating in any way but offers secondary infection in some cases.
Maintaining GOOD water quality and diet are often the fixes and with severe cases, some healing.
Some foods to feed tang are :
LRS herbivore diet
Formula 2 flake and frozen
TDO Pellets
small plankton
Hikari Marine cuisine
Ocean nutrition veggie diet
spirulina brine shrimp
mysis shrimp
Prime reef
Nori seaweed basted with garlic extract

Add selcon vitamins to foods occasionally. You will get some repair to face but dont expect full restoration

Ah okay, yeah wasnt expecting full restoration but I want to give him as best chance as possible and get him in the best health he can be before going to main DT. Where do you get those vitamins?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ah okay, yeah wasnt expecting full restoration but I want to give him as best chance as possible and get him in the best health he can be before going to main DT. Where do you get those vitamins?

I just got a new bottle today from saltwater.com but BRS and amazon also has it

 

[littlefoxx]

I just got a new bottle today from saltwater.com but BRS and amazon also has it

Awesome thank you. I have Hikri marine angel (lots of algae and seaweed and stuff) and hikri brine shrimp frozen food right now. Will these work or should l get another herbivore food for him?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Awesome thank you. I have Hikri marine angel (lots of algae and seaweed and stuff) and hikri brine shrimp frozen food right now. Will these work or should l get another herbivore food for him?

They will work but do add LRS herbivore or fish Frenzy, mysis shrimp and veggie diet

 

[littlefoxx]

They will work but do add LRS herbivore or fish Frenzy, mysis shrimp and veggie diet

Okay will do! Thank you very much. Do you think he has stunted growth? His body just looks more round than the other blue tangs he was with

 

[vetteguy53081]

Okay will do! Thank you very much. Do you think he has stunted growth? His body just looks more round than the other blue tangs he was with

He's small but may be due to poor diet. Small is not a bad thing

 

[Graemesreef]

Just because someone has 500 tangs in their supposedly part time home does not make them at all an expert. Head and lateral takes years to develop and show signs and that fish isn't old enough to have it. Also there are many other ways your fish looks this way. My friend had a purple tang swim into an an3enome and lived 9 years with a white face.

 

[littlefoxx]

He's small but may be due to poor diet. Small is not a bad thing

Okay yeah l wasnt sure cause he has way more black and not in neat lines like the others. He was for sure the oddball, l just was curious if there was other stuff going on with him structure wise.

 

[littlefoxx]

Just because someone has 500 tangs in their supposedly part time home does not make them at all an expert. Head and lateral takes years to develop and show signs and that fish isn't old enough to have it. Also there are many other ways your fish looks this way. My friend had a purple tang swim into an an3enome and lived 9 years with a white face.

Yeah the guy just had what the customer told him when surrendering the fish and the LFS tested his water and said it was bad with lots of ammonia and nitrites present, so he thought that also contributed. The customer told the LFS he was in a 55 gal with multiple other tangs that were bigger. LFS said that his fins were a lot worse when he first came in. I think he is correct on the other tangs beating on him with the number of scars and stuff all over his body.. pictures dont show all the stuff well. But I agree anything could have happened with him before l got him!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hey all. I just rescued a baby blue tang from a LFS. They had him for a month treating him before selling him. They told me he came from a customer who had him in a 55 gallon with other tangs and super bad water quality. He had been treated with copper and was in a tank running copper at the LFS for the month period. He has very beat up fins and a lot of scar marks/dents on his face and body. He also has a lot more black than most blue tangs. He also appears to be more round in body structure than the other blue tangs in the tank.

Of course being the person I am I immediately took interest in him and talked with the LFS about him. I just acclimated him to a 32 biocube (with two baby clowns to give him time to heal and keep an eye on him before moving him to DT). He swims well for how his fins look. I used seachem stress guard during the acclimation period.

I was just wondering if anyone has seen this before or who have tips on how to help him heal besides what Im currently doing? Just got him today. I want to do my very best for him and get him fully back to health and a happy fish!

While that may have HLLE, blue tangs also get another issue that is related, but a bit different, called "epithelial thinning". The photos aren't clear enough for me to say which this is. Here is an article I wrote up on HLLE:

Head and Lateral Line Erosion (HLLE)

This article discusses studies performed regarding head and lateral line erosion in captive fishes. Specifically, carbon use and nutrition as they relate to this syndrome.

www.reef2reef.com

Here is an early description of the epithelial thinning in tangs:

Captive-Bred Yellow Tangs - showing HLLE? - CORAL Magazine

I've seen photographs of wild Black Tangs, taken with flash photography, where they show what looks like classic HLLE lesions, but which is simply due to the camera flash.

www.reef2rainforest.com

Jay

 

[littlefoxx]

While that may have HLLE, blue tangs also get another issue that is related, but a bit different, called "epithelial thinning". The photos aren't clear enough for me to say which this is. Here is an article I wrote up on HLLE:

Head and Lateral Line Erosion (HLLE)

This article discusses studies performed regarding head and lateral line erosion in captive fishes. Specifically, carbon use and nutrition as they relate to this syndrome.

www.reef2reef.com

Here is an early description of the epithelial thinning in tangs:

Captive-Bred Yellow Tangs - showing HLLE? - CORAL Magazine

I've seen photographs of wild Black Tangs, taken with flash photography, where they show what looks like classic HLLE lesions, but which is simply due to the camera flash.

www.reef2rainforest.com

Jay

Thank you! I think he looks like the yellow tang in your article about HLLE and a lot of what the article described was what he looks like. I tried to get some better pictures. If he does have HLLE is this treatable?

 

[rocket098]

I have rescued a hippo tang with same issues as you have. You can search my posts for the thread. Bottom line is he will recover some of the lighter scars but the larger ones will remain no matter what. Here is something I did find interesting during an ich outbreak I found that it actually helped the hippo tang. The parasite must have eaten of some of the skin that had the faded colors. As a result the fish actually looked better color wise and scar tissue.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thank you! I think he looks like the yellow tang in your article about HLLE and a lot of what the article described was what he looks like. I tried to get some better pictures. If he does have HLLE is this treatable?

Given the fish’s history, some of this may be physical damage from the other fish. Isolating it in a good environment with a good diet will go a long way in fixing the issues.
Jay

 

[littlefoxx]

Given the fish’s history, some of this may be physical damage from the other fish. Isolating it in a good environment with a good diet will go a long way in fixing the issues.
Jay

Awesome thank you! Yeah I put him in my smaller tank with my clowns for now since they are chill. Then he will move to my bigger tank after the fallow period is over

 

[Uncle99]

Low stress, and great food.
teach him nori on a clip.