HLLE on Hippo

[harlequinnut]

My blue hippo has HLLE for a while now and it just about consumed most of his face and lateral line. He now looks like Freddy Krueger in NMOES. But other than his appearance, he seems fine with his eating and behavior. My question is will his face and lateral line ever get normal again given the right conditions? Thanks.

 

[harlequinnut]

I have a 55g fish only tank with a few LRs. My hippo has had this condition for about 6 months now more or less. His tank mates include a semilarvatus butterfly, majestic angel, harlequin tusk, moroon clown and a huma huma trigger. I feed them a diet of silversides, spirulina brine shrimp and mysis shrimp. As for the water parameters, I haven't been keeping as close a reading as I would like to. But I manage to change 25% of the water about once a month or so.

 

[beth]

I have always felt that it is very difficult to keep a healthy tang in a FO tank. They invariably seem HLLE prone. Needless to say, you tank is way over stocked. Do you have nitrates by chance?
Are you using a grounding probe? Any chance of finding a larger home for you tang? A home with LR?

 

[harlequinnut]

Thanks all. I hope to upgrade to a 75 in the near future.

 

[beth]

Do a search here. There is a lot of info and discussions on HLLE. Even recent topics. I'm sure you will come up with a lot of good info about treatment.
You really need to add more vegetarian food choices to the tang menu. Use zoecon as a food supplement. Be sure you have a grounding probe installed in your tank.
As I said, do a bit of a search here for info. I think it will help you and your hippo out a great deal.