Ring around the coral beauty!

[OlPainless]

Need help! Is this something I should be concerned about? My coral beauty always seemed to have a small mark above the left eye but now it almost completely circles the eye. I’ve had this fish for over a year now and it just got this way within the past week.

 

[threebuoys]

#fishmedic

perhaps HLLE (hope not) or bacterial infection. @Jay Hemdal may have a better idea

 

[vetteguy53081]

Need help! Is this something I should be concerned about? My coral beauty always seemed to have a small mark above the left eye but now it almost completely circles the eye. I’ve had this fish for over a year now and it just got this way within the past week.

This is head and lateral erosion (HLLE) and often a combination of poor water quality and diet
Assure ammonia and nitrate are not elevated and salinity not elevated
If running high amounts of carbon, reduce it
This is Not a flake and pellet fish and should be fed:
Hikari veggie diet
Spirulina brine shrimp
Mysis shrimp
LRS herbivore diet or fish frenzy
Small plankton
Hikari marine cuisine

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

That's unilateral head and lateral line erosion (HLLE). What is unusual is that it is just on one side. In the vast majority of cases, the erosion around the eyes and down the lateral line are more or less equal on one side and the other. I've seen a few cases where it is just one side though.

The fish having this for over a year means that it won't heal, the scars are permanent at this point. It won't be fatal though. The only proven cause of this is carbon filtration use at some point in the fish's history. Other ideas like poor water quality and diet have been ruled out as causes, but might make the issue worse. There may be other causes, but studies have not demonstrated what they might be.

If you want to take a deep dive into this topic, here is an article I wrote on it:

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

Jay

 

[OlPainless]

Thank you for all the input R2R family. I use a Tidal 110 HOB and then layered with a filter pad, chemipure blue bag and filter media sock. Should I remove the chemi pure blue bag? I feed algae pellets in the morning and frozen mysis shrimp in the evening. Coral beauty usually gets its fill of both.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thank you for all the input R2R family. I use a Tidal 110 HOB and then layered with a filter pad, chemipure blue bag and filter media sock. Should I remove the chemi pure blue bag? I feed algae pellets in the morning and frozen mysis shrimp in the evening. Coral beauty usually gets its fill of both.

Once HLLE starts, removing carbon won't heal it. Also, of all of the carbon products out there, well rinsed Chemipure and ROX/pelleted carbon seem to be the least worrisome.

Jay

 

[OlPainless]

Once HLLE starts, removing carbon won't heal it. Also, of all of the carbon products out there, well rinsed Chemipure and ROX/pelleted carbon seem to be the least worrisome.

Jay

Got it. My tank does usually run high nitrates being a small 36 gallon tank. I just added a micro skimmer to help and I try and keep up with 5 gallon weekly water changes. The other 3 fish I have are not showing any coloration issues.