Proof you CAN reverse HLLE

[Sink_or_Swim]

I just wanted to share this in case it might help someone else. My tomini tang developed a mild case of HLLE pitting a few weeks ago that quickly got worse. I came here and read Jay's article on it and scoured the web for things to try to hopefully help stop, heal and potentially reverse the damage. I wasn't sure any of it would actually work so pretty much thought he'd end up permanently disfigured. Well, I'm very happy to say he is almost completely healed and doing amazing! I don't know if it was one of these things or a combination, but here is what I did:

Started feeding more nori (with a few drops of selcon).
Soaked his daily Hikari sinking algae wafer in AminOmega.
Added VitaChem to the tank once a week.
Transferred everything to my new 75 gallon tank, which was set up with about 85% new water and 15% old tank water (which drastically lowered my high nitrates).

I don't run carbon, so I know that wasn't the cause. But I did struggle with really high nitrates in the old tank. I have done some reading that suggested high nitrates can contribute to HLLE and that, plus some possible stress from the smaller tank, is what I think caused this fish to develop it.
But, here are some before and after pics as proof of what can be achieved with treatment! Don't know if it would work in more severe cases though. (Top 2 pics in the collage are before, bottom are current, and the single pic is when it was at its worst).

 

[vetteguy53081]

I just wanted to share this in case it might help someone else. My tomini tang developed a mild case of HLLE pitting a few weeks ago that quickly got worse. I came here and read Jay's article on it and scoured the web for things to try to hopefully help stop, heal and potentially reverse the damage. I wasn't sure any of it would actually work so pretty much thought he'd end up permanently disfigured. Well, I'm very happy to say he is almost completely healed and doing amazing! I don't know if it was one of these things or a combination, but here is what I did:

Started feeding more nori (with a few drops of selcon).
Soaked his daily Hikari sinking algae wafer in AminOmega.
Added VitaChem to the tank once a week.
Transferred everything to my new 75 gallon tank, which was set up with about 85% new water and 15% old tank water (which drastically lowered my high nitrates).

I don't run carbon, so I know that wasn't the cause. But I did struggle with really high nitrates in the old tank. I have done some reading that suggested high nitrates can contribute to HLLE and that, plus some possible stress from the smaller tank, is what I think caused this fish to develop it.
But, here are some before and after pics as proof of what can be achieved with treatment! Don't know if it would work in more severe cases though. (Top 2 pics in the collage are before, bottom are current, and the single pic is when it was at its worst).

View attachment 2881759 View attachment 2881760

It’s been known that you can heal hlle with proper nutrition and water quality.
Based on the severity, you can get most or all of it to heal
Good job on restoration of fish as many who have it tend to live with it

 

[Sink_or_Swim]

It’s been known that you can heal hlle with proper nutrition and water quality.
Based on the severity, you can get most or all of it to heal
Good job on restoration of fish as many who have it tend to live with it

Thank you! I'm so glad I was able to get it to heal. I was starting to worry he could get a bacterial infection. I tried to act fast, especially when I noticed it started to spread along his gills. I am shocked by how fast he got better - within 2 weeks! I hope sharing the specific things I added to his diet helps someone else's fish too.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I just wanted to share this in case it might help someone else. My tomini tang developed a mild case of HLLE pitting a few weeks ago that quickly got worse. I came here and read Jay's article on it and scoured the web for things to try to hopefully help stop, heal and potentially reverse the damage. I wasn't sure any of it would actually work so pretty much thought he'd end up permanently disfigured. Well, I'm very happy to say he is almost completely healed and doing amazing! I don't know if it was one of these things or a combination, but here is what I did:

Started feeding more nori (with a few drops of selcon).
Soaked his daily Hikari sinking algae wafer in AminOmega.
Added VitaChem to the tank once a week.
Transferred everything to my new 75 gallon tank, which was set up with about 85% new water and 15% old tank water (which drastically lowered my high nitrates).

I don't run carbon, so I know that wasn't the cause. But I did struggle with really high nitrates in the old tank. I have done some reading that suggested high nitrates can contribute to HLLE and that, plus some possible stress from the smaller tank, is what I think caused this fish to develop it.
But, here are some before and after pics as proof of what can be achieved with treatment! Don't know if it would work in more severe cases though. (Top 2 pics in the collage are before, bottom are current, and the single pic is when it was at its worst).

View attachment 2881759 View attachment 2881760

Good to see!

Moving fish to new tanks has consistently been shown to help with HLLE. The less time the fish has been afflicted with it, the better the chance of it healing. I once had two quarantine systems - one with carbon dust in it and one without. I could turn HLLE on and off just by moving the fish back and forth between the two tanks.

Here is an excerpt that includes some survey data: (this survey was done before the two carbon HLLE papers were published)

In the survey results, 18 treatment methods were reported to have
caused remission of HLLE symptoms in fishes. Eighty-four percent of these cases involved
moving the fish to a new aquarium as one part of the treatment. This shows that there are
conditions in the physical operation of the aquarium itself that can be changed in order to reduce
the incidence of HLLE. When the survey results were limited to professional public aquarists,
19% of the respondents found complete reversal of HLLE by discontinuing the use of carbon
filtration. In addition, 75% of this sub-group stated that they felt that the use of carbon caused
HLLE in at least some cases.

Jay

 

[piranhaman00]

Yes I cured a LNB with HITh with selcon and good water, cool to watch clear up