Yellow Tang Fin Loss

[segmaster]

Hello everyone. I have another question regarding my Yellow Tang, so I have attached a picture of it's current condition. It's fins have looked like that for at least 2+ years. I don't have any fish that nip at him, as he's a senior member of my tank, being about five years old. Any thoughts on why his fins look like this, and can I help him?

 

[juniors04]

Wow thats intresting. Its been like that for 2 years? looks like he had better days hopefully he grows everything back.

 

[fau8]

My yellow tang was the first fish i put into my tank, I tried to introduce a powder blue and it didn"t work so I moved the yellow to my son's 60gallon tank with a lion fish and snow flake. Everything went well and after about 2 months the tang's fins started doing the same thing. I never monitored the water quality in that particular tank. I checked the tank and found the nitrates to be in the 70-80 range. I stated do in weekly 20% water changes and a month later with nitrates below 20 the fins all grew back.

 

[segmaster]

I never thought to test nitrate levels! I will get to testing as soon as I can get a new test kit.
Thanks again!
Segmaster

 

[ophiura]

Please post all tank specs:
Parameters (and nitrate is a big one) but also ammonia, nitrite, alkalinity, calcium, pH and specific gravity
Other inhabitants
Filtration
Live rock
Maintenance
Diet
The fish basically has Head and Lateral Line erosion and this is due to a variety of things - including water quality, diet, stress (eg tank size and overcrowding). I have seen improvements but that is a fairly severe level.