Angel Question

[stcardoza]

Hi,
My Coral Beauty has some problems. He is currently residing in my 20 gallon hospital tank with a clown fish, six-line wrasse and and firefish. The readings are Ammonia, Nitrite = 0 and Nitrate around 10. PH is at 8.3 and salinity is at 1.009. These fish are in their 3rd week of hyposalinity. These fish normally live in my 55 Gallon but I had a few green chromis die and they were hyperventilating before hand and the other fish started visiting the cleaner shrimp more often, so I figured there were some parasites in the water and I needed to do hypo on the fish.
My question now is in regards to my CB angel. I have attached a picture which has three different areas highlighted on him. My question is about these three areas...
Area #1 - This is s little difficult to see, but some of the skin on the dorsal fin is beginning to retreat from the dorsal spines. I'm not sure what is causing this.
Area #2 - This is more deterioration of the dorsal fin. The skin is turning a lighter color and I think may begin to retreat from the spines soon.
Area #3 - His face is suffering from HLLE. His eye, unlike the picture is quite clear. It is reflecting the camera flash which makes it look bad. I was wondering if there were good treatments for HLLE that I am missing. I have been using RO water for a few months for water changes and top-off's, and I feed him pygmy-angel formula, mysis shrimp and brine shrimp, all soaked in Zoe overnight. The HLLE first showed up in September when we moved to our new house. We used tap water for our tank then and found out later it was bad, he got HLLE and we had red slime algae like crazy. Since switching to RO water in November for water changes, the algae has all but disappeared, and the CB Angels HLLE seems to be getting a little better, but I didn't know if there was anything more I could do. How long does this take to heal?
Please take a look at the above numbers and let me know if you have any suggestions for helping my CB Angel. We've had him almost a year and I just want to help him get better. Please let me know. Thanks!
-Steve

 

[beth]

The whole problem is HLLE due to enviromental as well as nutritional deficiencies, including the fin deterioration. I would think that once the fish is returned to the reef setup, things should improve.
Angels need sponge and vegetable matter as well as a good variety of meaty foods. Be sure to offer all of these food groups. Also, try using Zoecon. Feed with garlic soaked food alternatively. Meaning, one meal zoecon food, one meal garlic soaked food.
Lets see what happens when the fish gets back into the main tank.
Also, are you using a grounding probe? There are many sources to the HLLE problem, stray voltage in the aquarium from electrical equiptment is one. The grounding probe should take care of this.

 

[stcardoza]

Hi Beth,
Thanks for the quick response. I had a few questions I wanted to throw your way about this.
1. Nutrition. On the pygmy-angel formula food label it says that pygmy-angels don't eat sponge, so I haven't been giving him any foods with sponge in it. Do I need to be doing this? The pygmy angel blend has lots of meaty and vegetable foods in it. I also soak it in Zoe and garlic every day. Do you have any suggestions on a food product that would be good to feed him? Should I use the large angel formula with sponge in it?
2. Is Zoe different from Zoecon? If so, is Zoecon better to use? I use Zoe now, and want to make sure I use the correct product. Also, would Selcon be better than both?
3. Stray Voltage. My house is older and is not grounded. This is something that we are going to install sometime this year, but since I have to drill through the side of my house, it's going to be a little while until I can get this tank grounded. However, since the HLLE condition has not improved in the QT that much, I am more led to believe that stray voltage is not the cause, but of course I could be wrong. It seemed to happen when we started using the house tap water.
Thanks for all of the help Beth!
-Steve

 

[beth]

Try adding spirulina as well as marine seaweed, such as Seaweed Selects or Nori from the Oriental section of the food store. Angels need a good deal of grazing. You can also try offering fresh foods that you make up yourself. A combination of seafoods from the seafood counter at your grocery store, such as squid, shrimp, octopus, shrimp, scallops, etc., mixed in with that the spirulina and seaweed selects, toped off with some garlic and Zoecon, Zoe, or Selcon, mixed in a blender. You can keep this mixture in the freezer and break off portions for feeding.
Zoe, Zoecon and Selcon are all good for HLLE, but they are different. Zoecon has Omeaga3 fatty acid.
With HLLE, you have to work at addressing the cause. Unlike other fish diseases, HLLE is a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself.