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Purple Tang with Tear on Tailfin? (1 Viewer)

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CKramer

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Hi there! So our Tang has a small tear on his tail fin that we noticed a day or so ago. We know he (obvisouly) has HLLE and was that way when we took ownership of him, but this tail fin tear is new.

Is it part of HLLE or something like rot?

Nothing new has been added to the tank and we have never witnessed anyone dare bully him.

TIA!
 

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frankc

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That tear looks to me like it might have ripped it on a rock or something, although it could be the start of HLLE deterioration. The dorsal fin deterioration definitely looks like HLLE to me.

I had a yellow tang that looked worse than this back when I didn't know to feed seaweed. Once I started feeding seaweed, the deterioration stopped and it lived another 7 or 8 years, but the fins and lateral line never recovered.
 
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CKramer

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That tear looks to me like it might have ripped it on a rock or something, although it could be the start of HLLE deterioration. The dorsal fin deterioration definitely looks like HLLE to me.

I had a yellow tang that looked worse than this back when I didn't know to feed seaweed. Once I started feeding seaweed, the deterioration stopped and it lived another 7 or 8 years, but the fins and lateral line never recovered.
Thanks, that is kind of what we were thinking. He's recently adopted a new path between some coral and rocks! I guess for now we'll just monitor closley.

And yes on the seaweed! Thanks to MARSH we learned back in July (when we took ownership of this tank) that we needed to be supplementing with seaweed, so he gets that soaked in Selcon now and loves it.
 

Humblefish

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I agree that it looks like it got ripped on a rock, or possibly another fish nipped his tail. Nori + vitamin soaked foods should help heal it.
 
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