Yellow Tang - HLLE?

DC Reefer · Nov 30, 2020

Just noticed one of my yellow tangs has white that wraps around its head just above its eyes. I did not notice this on the fish yesterday. Other than this the fish seems to be acting normal and eating fine. None of the other fish (including another yellow tang and other tangs) have this symptom. I believe it might be HLLE.

Aquarium Parameters
Reef tank
about 190G total system volume - 155 in display, 35 in sump and 13 in frag tank
Filtration, filter socks, carbon (1.1 cup of Rox 0.8 in a reactor changed every 2 wks), skimmer and brightwell dimpled bricks x3. Installed UV a couple of days ago
Lighting on display 2 Radion Pros plus 4 T5s
Aquarium has been up and running since 8/13/19, fish were added 9/1/19, tangs 10/14/19
Bare bottom, started with live rock

Water Quality
Temp - 78
Salinity 1.026
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - don't test
Nitrate 4 PPM
Phosphate .02 PPM - was running 0 and started dosing Neophosphate daily on 11/13. Started at 4 ml/day and increased to 8ml/day on 11/17
Copper 0
MG 1425
ALK 8.78
CA 511

In-Depth info
No fish lost to this issue
Invertebrates are fine
Affected fish respiration is fine.
Affected fish eating normally
Have not tried any remedies
Photos of impacted fish below (sorry about pic in white light they all hid)
No fish have been added to the system in over 1 year. Latest coral addition was in April. Inverts (snails) added to Frag tank yesterday.
Fish are fed 2x daily a mixture of , rods herbivore blend, Hikari Reef Riot Herbivore, PE Mysis, Spirulina Brine Shrimp, and Mega Marine Algae

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

chinw76 · Nov 30, 2020

Get rid of the carbon. Running carbon will do that to tangs. My hippo tang was affected from it. So no carbon, feed more algae based foods and add selcon (vitamins) to the food to heal. Soak food with a few drops for 15 mins before feeding.

PTXReef · Dec 1, 2020

+1 on @chinw76 's advice.

Had a large yellow tang develop HLLE during a long copper treatment with a malnourished diet (little to no nori). Once I introduced more variety (very similar mix to yours currently) and soaked in selcon daily, the tang's HLLE improved. It's good that you're catching it earlier (mine was much worse with HLLE on the entire lateral line to the tail and took about 2 months to recover half way on its body).

ShepherdReefer · Dec 1, 2020

Our yellow tang, back in the day, had problems. We feed it differently they the others with a better diet and everything improved.

Jay Hemdal · Dec 1, 2020

Hi folks,
One thing we need to look at is that the OP said the lesion developed overnight. If that observation is accurate, then this isn’t HLLE. Additionally, HLLE presents differently in YT, more fin erosion, less color disruption.
Jay

craigbuss · Dec 1, 2020

I’m having the same problem. My yellow tang has been eating and acting completely normal as well. I stopped dosing carbon last week. I have not seen much improvement yet. I think the color has gotten better but I’m not really sure. Only thing I’ve really noticed is that my phosphate has gone up from .04-.1 and is now causing a algae outbreak.

DC Reefer · Dec 1, 2020

Thank you all for your responses. My lighting routine starts out more white in the morning and then goes to all blue in the afternoon. This morning under a more white light, it is very difficult to see anything on the fish, so it may have not come on as quickly as I originally thought. I increased the blues to where they were last night and the symptoms became more visible, but not nearly as noticeable as in the pictures originally posted. Here are photos from this morning under whiter lighting.

Jay Hemdal · Dec 1, 2020

Tough to say now- I’ve only seen yellow tangs with HLLE under white light, and as I said, they don’t have white lesions....but the blue light is a wild card for me, and since we don’t know for sure this came on at once, I guess I’d put HLLE back on the table, along with mucus/bacteria from bumping its head on something. Either way, I don’t see any treatment needed other than don’t use soft carbon, feed well and keep your water quality high.
Jay

DC Reefer · Dec 1, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Tough to say now- I’ve only seen yellow tangs with HLLE under white light, and as I said, they don’t have white lesions....but the blue light is a wild card for me, and since we don’t know for sure this came on at once, I guess I’d put HLLE back on the table, along with mucus/bacteria from bumping its head on something. Either way, I don’t see any treatment needed other than don’t use soft carbon, feed well and keep your water quality high.
Jay

Thank you Jay, I will continue to monitor. With respect to carbon, my understanding is the Rox 0.8 carbon is very hard. Is there something else you would recommend over the ROX?

craigbuss · Dec 1, 2020

DC Reefer said:
Thank you Jay, I will continue to monitor. With respect to carbon, my understanding is the Rox 0.8 carbon is very hard. Is there something else you would recommend over the ROX?

I’ve been using the ROX carbon also. I really would like to be able to still run carbon. Id there is another carbon that others have had success with while having the same HLLE issue that would be awesome!!

Jay Hemdal · Dec 1, 2020

DC Reefer said:
Thank you Jay, I will continue to monitor. With respect to carbon, my understanding is the Rox 0.8 carbon is very hard. Is there something else you would recommend over the ROX?

No, that carbon seems to be problem free .
Jay

craigbuss · Dec 1, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
No, that carbon seems to be problem free .
Jay

But if he is already running that carbon and is having problems like me then that carbon is not problem free?

Jay Hemdal · Dec 2, 2020

craigbuss said:
But if he is already running that carbon and is having problems like me then that carbon is not problem free?

I just haven’t had any confirmation that this carbon causes HLLE, but have had many people use it and tell me they have no problems, unlike soft lignite carbon that almost always causes issues.
Jay

craigbuss · Dec 2, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
I just haven’t had any confirmation that this carbon causes HLLE, but have had many people use it and tell me they have no problems, unlike soft lignite carbon that almost always causes issues.
Jay

So your saying the brs ROX has not shown any problems?

Jay Hemdal · Dec 2, 2020

craigbuss said:
So your saying the brs ROX has not shown any problems?

Right, subjectively, I have had no definitive reports of that causing HLLE, but dozens of reports that it did not cause issues with people’s fish. Same with chemipure. I did NOT use either product in my study, so I’m not drawing a conclusion, only reporting other people’s opinions.
Jay

craigbuss · Dec 2, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Right, subjectively, I have had no definitive reports of that causing HLLE, but dozens of reports that it did not cause issues with people’s fish. Same with chemipure. I did NOT use either product in my study, so I’m not drawing a conclusion, only reporting other people’s opinions.
Jay

Ok thank you. I found your report. I plan on reading it tonight to learn more about it and come up with a plan for getting my tang back to normal. It looks pretty bad but acts completely normal. I’ll try and take a picture and post on this thread later.

chinw76 · Dec 2, 2020

craigbuss said:
I’ve been using the ROX carbon also. I really would like to be able to still run carbon. Id there is another carbon that others have had success with while having the same HLLE issue that would be awesome!!

I was using rox also. I installed a uv sterilizer and it keeps my water clear. Should only run carbon if something is going wrong with your tank.