Tangs Dying, rest of fish, inverts and Coral are happy

jwhiteuwc

Member
Please flame away.. I feel the same way, I want to know WHY it's happening so I can correct it.
Nitrates = 5 or less
 

jwhiteuwc

Member
What % chance to you think he has of living? I can place him in a QT with treatment and all I have is maracyn-two

[hr]
on hand.
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by jwhiteuwc
What % chance to you think he has of living? I can place him in a QT with treatment and all I have is maracyn-two

[hr]
on hand.
I think capturing him and moving him would do more harm than good. If your water is good, just try to get him to eat. Has he been eating? You didn't answer my question. Did the other fish have these symptoms before dying? Please be brutaly honest of what all has happened. This did not happen overnight. We can only move forward from here, but we need to know the background behind this.
 

jwhiteuwc

Member
My Hippo tang died somewhat like this, but more or less it looked like his rib-cage was showing like he was losing weight. He seemed to loose color for about 1 week and then just died. Now with my Yellow tang it came on very fast. I noticed just before I left for vacation for 5 days that he was hidding behind rocks more then normal, but he looked OK. Now when I returned from vacation he was really bad.
No he didn't eat before I left for vacaction, I wish I could have stayed home as I had a bad feeling about him when I was gone.
So to answer you question, I would say YES my other tang did die of the same disease HLLE as a sign of HLLE is the showing fo the ribs / skinniness of the fish. Not knowing this before I just thought that the Hippo tang was stress or just not doing well. Now that it's spread to my other tang, I then knew is was something more.
I think my Water qaulity is good. I change the water very 3 weeks 15% change with RODI water which is Premixed with Reef Cystals 40-72 hours in advance in a 50gallon tub. Nothing is showing up on the test kits indicating poor qaulity, but that doesn't mean there isn't something going on I don't test for, but I have the most common test kits by Salferite.
Any other ideas? I'm going to puchase a volt meter to test and either find or elimate the possiblity of a grouding issue, which is a theory of HLLE as outlined by Beth.
From there and doing water changes, I'm not sure what else to do/monitor/check.
Any ideas would be great.
I'm guessing by morning my Yellow tang will be no longer... he is not looking well at all and will not eat.
 

mygatt

Member
jwhite sounds like you want to do this guy in, lol? I have seen them come back from looking like that, it will definetly be difficult, but you just need to give him alot of care. When I first started around 6 years ago my first fish was a Yellow tang, my lfs sold him to me and said - all you have to do is feed him these flakes, and your 20 gallon tank will be fine - well needless to say about 2 months later he made yours look like a princess. This is when I turned to the internet for solving my fish problems - anyways I started feeding him right, got my levels under control, got him a much bigger tank and he lived wonderfully up until last year - god rest his soul - so don't give up on him - if you jump on it right away you definetly have a chance to save him. I think the main thing that need to happen here is a change in diet - the most difficult part is going to be getting him to eat - have you tried soaking his seaweed sheets in garlic?
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by jwhiteuwc
My Hippo tang died somewhat like this, but more or less it looked like his rib-cage was showing like he was losing weight. He seemed to loose color for about 1 week and then just died. Now with my Yellow tang it came on very fast. I noticed just before I left for vacation for 5 days that he was hidding behind rocks more then normal, but he looked OK. Now when I returned from vacation he was really bad.
No he didn't eat before I left for vacaction, I wish I could have stayed home as I had a bad feeling about him when I was gone.
So to answer you question, I would say YES my other tang did die of the same disease HLLE as a sign of HLLE is the showing fo the ribs / skinniness of the fish. Not knowing this before I just thought that the Hippo tang was stress or just not doing well. Now that it's spread to my other tang, I then knew is was something more.
I think my Water qaulity is good. I change the water very 3 weeks 15% change with RODI water which is Premixed with Reef Cystals 40-72 hours in advance in a 50gallon tub. Nothing is showing up on the test kits indicating poor qaulity, but that doesn't mean there isn't something going on I don't test for, but I have the most common test kits by Salferite.
Any other ideas? I'm going to puchase a volt meter to test and either find or elimate the possiblity of a grouding issue, which is a theory of HLLE as outlined by Beth.
From there and doing water changes, I'm not sure what else to do/monitor/check.
Any ideas would be great.
I'm guessing by morning my Yellow tang will be no longer... he is not looking well at all and will not eat.
I realy wish you had posted this earlier, we could have saved the others as well. Don't give up hope on him. He realy needs an immune boost though. Do you have nori sheets? Soak them in fresh garlic. Give this guy a chance. Anything you can get him to eat, loaded with vitamines would be a plus right now.
 

jwhiteuwc

Member
I really wish I would have posted earlier too. HOwever, leaving on vacation and then coming home to something unexpected is rather disturbing. Something always happens when I'm on vacation....
I'm sad to say, My yellow tang passed away last night. :-(
I do have Nori sheets and Garlic extract, but now it's to late.
Now the question remains, why did 2 tangs all of a sudden come down with HLLE? Maybe poor water conditions, but what did I do this last month (or 2) that was different from the last few years? The only thing I changed was the vitiman suplement from Selcon to Vita-Chem, otherwise their diet has been the same for years (and maybe that's the problem). I'm assuming HLLE isn't contagious, but maybe it is.
I really wish I could have been home to help him before I left as I would have noticed he wasn't eating and went into diagnosing his condition, but somethings it's out of a persons hand.
I do thank all of you for your help. I'm going to look for problems with the tank in hopes of nothing major and correct it, maybe it's just the diet...
Thanks again.
 

lazypinoy

Member
Originally Posted by jwhiteuwc
Picture 2. I know not to use nets, but do you think it's time to put him out of his pain?
Picture 2
Yes, I have powerheads, nitrates are 5 or less.
Air hose in the corner of the tank from a air pump.
UPDATE: looks like HLLE dammmit!!! Why couldn't I have seen this in the first tang.....
Is he to progressed to live?
=O man id just put em out of misery.
 

hatessushi

Active Member
Sorry your fish didn't make it.
You said you switched from Selcon to Vita-chem yet those are 2 different supplements. Vita-chem provides vitamins and Selcon provides mostly highly unsaturated fatty acids, vitamin C, and B12. Although the vita-chem provides vitamin B12 and many other multi-vitamins both products should be used together.
You never mentioned what your Ph level or alkalinity was yet those can have very detrimental effects if not maintained at the proper levels.
 

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by jwhiteuwc
I really wish I would have posted earlier too. HOwever, leaving on vacation and then coming home to something unexpected is rather disturbing. Something always happens when I'm on vacation....
I'm sad to say, My yellow tang passed away last night. :-(
I do have Nori sheets and Garlic extract, but now it's to late.
Now the question remains, why did 2 tangs all of a sudden come down with HLLE? Maybe poor water conditions, but what did I do this last month (or 2) that was different from the last few years? The only thing I changed was the vitiman suplement from Selcon to Vita-Chem, otherwise their diet has been the same for years (and maybe that's the problem). I'm assuming HLLE isn't contagious, but maybe it is.
I really wish I could have been home to help him before I left as I would have noticed he wasn't eating and went into diagnosing his condition, but somethings it's out of a persons hand.
I do thank all of you for your help. I'm going to look for problems with the tank in hopes of nothing major and correct it, maybe it's just the diet...
Thanks again.
A tangs diet does play a significant role in their health. Most tangs are grazers in the wild and are used to getting a wide variety of foods. I am very sorry to hear of your loss.
 
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