How to cure HLLE

[steveoutlaw]

My yellow tang has it and I have to figure out how to cure it. I've been told to use Zoecon as a food supplement but can't find it anywhere. Anyone have any ideas?

[ErikS]

The real trick is to find out the source - HLLE come from some outside factor - generally that is (though as far as I know nobody is quite certain). It's actually an auto-immune disease (immune system failing). Most often it's due to stress from poor water conditions (PH, temp, ammonia, etc).

 

Here's a link to a pretty good article - http://www.marineaquariumadvice.com/hypoth...ne_erosion.html

 

It's not certain death, but it does look bad - it takes a long time to kill a fish. Before using any chemicals I'd find the source of the problem otherwise chemicals will be ineffective.

[Lee Stearns]

interesting subject- Zoecon is similar to selcon, and is just a vitamin supplement that you add to mysis shrimp or any other food source to do two things- One get their appetite up- Must be the equivalent to A-1 -- because when you put any food in a tank that has had a couple of drops of selcon added the fish begin serching for the source- It has a fishy smell- And two it is supposed to have a balanced vitamin content, so they are getting their one-a-day as well. I use it almost daily as an additive to whatever frozen food I am thawing out.

[Gatortailale]

do you feed nori sheets to the tang? Tangs need to graze on nori or other types of seaweed. I have had the same yellows for 4+ years and never had HLLE. I feed nori 5+ days a week. Either seaweed selects, bulk nori from bigalsonline.com or you can buy some at asian stores.

[steveoutlaw]

I have the seaweed selects that I put in every other day. I'll increase that to daily and see how he does. Lately I've been dousing the seaweed with Kent Garlic Xtreme so hopefully that will help (although it does make the water stinky).

[ErikS]

I'll increase that to daily and see how he does. Lately I've been dousing the seaweed with Kent Garlic Xtreme so hopefully that will help (although it does make the water stinky).

 

Not so sure I'd increase the feeding, every other day should be plenty (heck even every 2nd day) - remember fish go several days w/o eating in the wild. Adding food is just going to increase the amount of nutrients & waste production which in turn will cause water quality issues -> increased stress -> HLLE.

 

I'd stay with the current feeding (or even knock it back a tad) & find out the source of the stress. Water, other fish, etc.

 

Just adding food is like treating a toothache w/ anebesol - it's a bandaid solution at best.

[steveoutlaw]

Gotcha.......but I wouldn't think about treating a toothache with anbesol.......scotch works much better (and tastes better).

 

On a good note, the fish isn't acting strange. The only way I know that he has it is by the white areas under his eyes.

[Lee Stearns]

I reported this in the members forum under healthy fish but is germain here.

I was reading on RC some of the solutions for HLLE and Vitamine A increase seems to be the cure.

Gracillaria Macro is better than calurpa macros. Indianapolis zoo reported:

"Carrots were found to be a good natural food, but they had to be shredded and were quite messy to feed. Still, we fed carrots solely for six to eight weeks and observed a resolution of the HLLE. A more complete literature review made broccoli an obvious choice. It is well balanced in many vitamins in addition to the high level of vitamin A, and also has other features that make it acceptable. It holds up very well in the aquarium. Many fish like the flowerettes when they are first added. Only the larger fish could break open the woody layer on the stalks, but once opened small fish feed on the softer pulp material. We replaced the carrots with broccoli, and we are currently using it as a well-balanced maintenance diet.

 

After replacing the lettuce diet with first carrots and then fresh broccoli, the HLLE improved to the extent that only a few scars remained on the most severely affected fish. After nearly eight years in the exhibit, most of the original batch of blue tangs are still alive. Broccoli, supplemented with peas and other prepared foods, dominates the diet. No HLLE sypmtoms are evident in any of the fish in the exhibit. "

[ErikS]

The only way I know that he has it is by the white areas under his eyes.

Sounds like early stages - your skimmer is working & some vitamen supplements, I imagine the fish should be fine.