Fish don't look so hot, help

[erid]

Hey guys. I have a couple of fish in my tank that have frayed fins, and some skin around the head area that looks scraped (white area by eye). The other fish are perfectly healthy. It's just my Hippo tang and my Scopas tang that have the problem. My Maroon clown, Six line wrasse, and midas blenny look great.

Oh, and by the way, yes it is a reef tank so my parameters are excellent, and corals are fine and colorful. ; )

Any idea what that may be? Will Vitamin C help?

 

[SWITCH420]

i seem to have the same thing going on in my reef tank some fish have white spots and tailfins beat up from what i found it can be ich or a fungus i just bought some kordon rid fungus organic and it says its reef safe just started dosing today will keep u posted if it works

 

[Phyl]

What are they eating? Largely veggie diet? Nobody picking on them? How long have they looked like this and has anything changed recently?

 

[erid]

Phyl, they are eating some sinking Garlic Pellets (forget the brand)from petsmart, and Misys shrimp. Thinks it's omega one?
I noticed this in the beginning of the summer on the Hippo Tang. His color is brilliant, but his fins are torn and as I mentioned, the white area near his eye area.

At first glimpse, it looked like the beginning stages of "hole on the head" like you see on Oscars in fresh water.

The Six line kills almost anyhting that I put in the tank (Yellow Cloris, Anthias, Etc). But if it's him, it's at night...

 

[Phyl]

They need a bit more veggie than that. I'd try some algae wafers or nori hanging in the tank, a bit of food made for herbivores. Maybe some Ocean Nutrition Formula two (even flake is better than not). It does sound like it might be the initial stages of HLLE (head and lateral line disease). If you can't snag a photo try googling HLLE and see what you find.

 

[erid]

This is very interesting... Found an article online.

There have been a number of cases where the simple presence of carbon in the filtration has actually caused HLLE. In these cases carbon was present when the HLLE developed. Either initially or after trying other treatments that failed or had little progress, the carbon was removed. At this point the HLLE went away. Once it was gone either the carbon was returned and the keeper was trying to get back to normal, or it was returned to see if it really was the cause. When the carbon was returned, so did the HLLE. This seems to be due to carbon removing vital trace elements and micronutrients.

 

[Jcurry@wesketch]

It's not the carbon, it's the poor diet. You should have a sheet of seaweed hanging in the tank for most of the day, everyday. It will also help with the fighting between your tangs which most likely the cause of the torn fins.

 

[erid]

Thanks Jerry. I'll give that a shot and post my results in a month.

 

[1201139]

for the herbivore part of this i would suggest omega one dried green seaweed. my fish love it and devour it immediatly even the carnivores in my tank eat it