Yellow Tang HLLE?

[Jody Owens]

I have a yellow tang that is showing some minor indentions on his side. I am wondering if it is just from growing or could it be HLLE.

 

[KrisReef]

I don’t see HLLE. The fish looks good and will probably look better once it’s done serving time in the box.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a yellow tang that is showing some minor indentions on his side. I am wondering if it is just from growing or could it be HLLE.

This is a light case but nevertheless HLLE which causes 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

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I have a yellow tang that is showing some minor indentions on his side. I am wondering if it is just from growing or could it be HLLE.

That really isn't how yellow tangs show HLLE. In some fish, you do see generalized white pitting, but in this species, the skin underneath is yellow, so it doesn't look the same. Also, with yellow tangs and HLLE, you can see fin erosion, which I don't see here. There is a related issue called epithelial thinning, but I don't see evidence of that either.

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.coralmagazine.com

Jay