Urgent help! What has attacked my fish?

[Quinnchero]

HLLE in my opinion. The fish was just displaying the end phase, which is very common to appear "suddenly over night" when in reality it has been an ongoing issue internally for some time.

 

[aquariumworks]

Was there any other zebrasoma in the aquarium?
Several years back I had a client that was using a PO4 reduction liquid and litterally without warning all the zebrasoma were in even worse shape than your purple tang was in the video.
Strange thing was that specifically the zebrasoma were affected (Black tang, Purple tang, Yellow tang, Sailfin tang, etc.), all of his other fish were 100% normal, including other surgeons(Naso’s, Powder blue, Chevron, etc.).
I found that the product the client had been using contained lanthanum chloride, I’m not going to mention specific brands here, only the active ingredient that could be a culprit.
If you google “lanthanum chloride” and “Tang”, you should be able to see a few acticles listed.
Sorry that you lost such a beautiful fish
I hope this may help, in case you may have been treating or have treated in the past with a product containing lanthanum chloride. The reason I mentioned past, I’m no scientist, but I’m understanding that lanthanum chloride can bind and percipitate back into the system if vigorously disturbed(like stirring up the detritus in your sump).
Again I’m using no science here, just a bit the University of hard knocks.
Good luck

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Was there any other zebrasoma in the aquarium?
Several years back I had a client that was using a PO4 reduction liquid and litterally without warning all the zebrasoma were in even worse shape than your purple tang was in the video.
Strange thing was that specifically the zebrasoma were affected (Black tang, Purple tang, Yellow tang, Sailfin tang, etc.), all of his other fish were 100% normal, including other surgeons(Naso’s, Powder blue, Chevron, etc.).
I found that the product the client had been using contained lanthanum chloride, I’m not going to mention specific brands here, only the active ingredient that could be a culprit.
If you google “lanthanum chloride” and “Tang”, you should be able to see a few acticles listed.
Sorry that you lost such a beautiful fish
I hope this may help, in case you may have been treating or have treated in the past with a product containing lanthanum chloride. The reason I mentioned past, I’m no scientist, but I’m understanding that lanthanum chloride can bind and percipitate back into the system if vigorously disturbed(like stirring up the detritus in your sump).
Again I’m using no science here, just a bit the University of hard knocks.
Good luck

That sounds plausible as carbon has been proven to cause HLLE in tangs from fine particles clogging the pores in their lateral lines. The lanthanum chloride may be doing the same thing, or one of its precipitates, lanthanum phosphate or lanthanum carbonate.

 

[mahadazad]

Do you use any oxidizers? Like hydrogen peroxide or ORP.

Nope

 

[mahadazad]

Sorry for your losses. How old was the fish?

It was around 1 year with me

 

[mahadazad]

If you have overflow columns in your aquarium, I would suspect the material that built up in there, if disrupted to put a cloud of gas into the water when turned on again. IF you clean out a dirty sump with layers of sediment, always vacuum out the entire sump and wipe it down dry before putting back into service-- nasty gas and bacteria can be related back into the water if you don't. Finally, if you ANY of the flocculant produces ( there are a half dozen) or any of the red algae products they can also linger in the overflow columns and get released into the tank when you start up again as the column self washes. Those can be really toxic in large amounts. Finally, IF you removed the stand pipes in the overflows this will for sure put the materials accumulated back into circulation. You fish looks like it is a toxic brain reaction/total physiological break down.

Thanks that was really helpful. I thank all of you guys for your suggestions.

 

[mahadazad]

How long did you have it before this event happened?

About 1 year

 

[mahadazad]

Was there any other zebrasoma in the aquarium?
Several years back I had a client that was using a PO4 reduction liquid and litterally without warning all the zebrasoma were in even worse shape than your purple tang was in the video.
Strange thing was that specifically the zebrasoma were affected (Black tang, Purple tang, Yellow tang, Sailfin tang, etc.), all of his other fish were 100% normal, including other surgeons(Naso’s, Powder blue, Chevron, etc.).
I found that the product the client had been using contained lanthanum chloride, I’m not going to mention specific brands here, only the active ingredient that could be a culprit.
If you google “lanthanum chloride” and “Tang”, you should be able to see a few acticles listed.
Sorry that you lost such a beautiful fish
I hope this may help, in case you may have been treating or have treated in the past with a product containing lanthanum chloride. The reason I mentioned past, I’m no scientist, but I’m understanding that lanthanum chloride can bind and percipitate back into the system if vigorously disturbed(like stirring up the detritus in your sump).
Again I’m using no science here, just a bit the University of hard knocks.
Good luck

I am using different type of fish foods but all are good brand. I also have activated carbon in my tank to reduce the smell and color of the water. During the sump cleanup that was also moved and might have mixed in the water

 

[mahadazad]

Do you use any oxidizers? Like hydrogen peroxide or ORP.

Nope, but I had activated carbon in my sump which was also moved alot during the cleanup

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Nope, but I had activated carbon in my sump which was also moved alot during the cleanup

What kind of carbon? Is it in a bag or a reactor and is it allowed to tumble. Carbon has been proven to cause HLLE in tangs, especially lower quality carbons. The fine dust builds up in the pores of the lateral line over time and causes lots of issues. High quality carbon, pre-rinsing and not allowing it to tumble greatly reduces this risk.

 

[Reeferdood]

@Humblefish
I am surprised by your absence on this thread, it is too late to save the fish but perhaps you have seen something like this before??

 

[Humblefish]

@mahadazad Can you please list the fish that were unaffected by whatever happened here?

 

[Flexin]

sorry to hear about your loss..

 

[mahadazad]

What kind of carbon? Is it in a bag or a reactor and is it allowed to tumble. Carbon has been proven to cause HLLE in tangs, especially lower quality carbons. The fine dust builds up in the pores of the lateral line over time and causes lots of issues. High quality carbon, pre-rinsing and not allowing it to tumble greatly reduces this risk.

Yes a bag of it. It was pre-rinse before adding to the tank and it has been there for months

 

[Lasse]

as carbon has been proven to cause HLLE in tangs from fine particles clogging the pores in their lateral lines.

My bold - Can you please verify this with sources or links to investigations of this. I am interested to know about this because it is a disease I never ever have seen in any tang - in spite of people using active carbon.

I can find one article from 2011 talking about dust from activated carbon - but only that article. However I found this too from 2013

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Humblefish]

My bold - Can you please verify this with sources or links to investigations of this. I am interested to know about this because it is a disease I never ever have seen in any tang - in spite of people using active carbon.

I’m not sure if I would call it proof positive, but check out the links below:

http://www.saltwatersmarts.com/hlle-head-lateral-line-erosion-activated-carbon-connection-4702/

https://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/activated-carbon-affirmed-as-causative-agent-for-hlle-disease

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08997659.2011.608608

 

[Lasse]

Thank you humblefish

Yes I found them but I can´t access the full papers. Sometimes it is important to read the full article - not only the abstract. But what I have read of it - it does not show up suddenly - I doubt it is HLLE in this case.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Humblefish]

What’s stumping me is why only 1 fish was seemingly affected. I’d like to know how many/which kind were unaffected.

 

[mahadazad]

I have:

1 naso tang
3 black tail demselfish
1 tomini tang
1 surgeon fish (dory)
1 rainbow wrasse
2 damsels
1 metallic demsel
1 cleaner wrasse

 

[mahadazad]

Tank size is 4x2x2