One year old damsel

[Cope07]

I have a damsel that is about one year old. It has had these holes above the eyes for a few months now. Does anyone have any idea what it could be?

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Anyway you can get a brighter picture?

 

[Cope07]

After 50 pictures I finally got a decent one. Any ideas?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

That’s head and lateral line erosion, HLLE. It is pretty rare in damsels, but does happen sometimes. The isn’t any treatment for this but it also isn’t fatal.
Jay

 

[old salt reefer]

The thought is activated carbon and or bad diet cause it. That's only 2 of the possible causes. With the carbon it is thought the fine dust from it blasts the fishes skin. Most including me step up to BRS ROX 0.8 carbon as it has the lest to no dust. Feeding food soaked in Selcon also helps or so it's said.

 

[Cope07]

I do not use activated carbon at all. I use media filters and water changes to keep the water clean. Is there any way to reverse the damage by improving the food that I feed them using the vitamins mentioned?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I do not use activated carbon at all. I use media filters and water changes to keep the water clean. Is there any way to reverse the damage by improving the food that I feed them using the vitamins mentioned?

Dietary changes, although always a good principle, have never been clinically shown to reverse HLLE. In anecdotal cases, there almost always seems to be a secondary factor. In the HLLE survey that I made of public aquarists, moving the fish had the greatest impact on recovery.

That said, as I mentioned, HLLE is very rare in damsels, nobody has had enough of them in an affected state, to perform any studies as to if the syndrome is different in them.

Jay