Rescued Yellow Tang with severe HLLE w fin loss

[Ziggy17]

Hi all,

a little background…

A few months back there was an ad in the local classifieds for a marine tank being shut down. I wasn't interested in the tank, but perhaps some of the livestock. I have a RS 300XL that was up for about 8 months at the time.. The seller advised that he had some fish in there but he wasn‘t sure what was left as the tank was in his old home which he rents to his son for the last year.. so I head out there to have a look. It was a disaster. The tank hadn’t been properly kept for some time. There were a couple mature and mated clowns, and a WC yellow tang. The tang had been only fed pellets for a year and was being bullied by the clowns, so needless to say, the tang was in bad shape. The fins were practically gone and the only colour I could see on it was white. Out of mercy I took the fish, dropped off the clowns to the LFS, but kept the tang in hopes of nursing him back to health and get a Hawaiian YT for free.
It’s been a few months and the colour has mostly come back, but his fins don’t appear like they are coming back. (See photos). He gets a daily steady diet of both green and red Nour, put on a clip every couple hours. He gets fed frozen mysis and brine soaked in vitamin M, garlic and selcon. its appetite is strong and it‘s a model citizen in the tank.

Can the fins grow back or at that point, is the fish as good as it’s going to get given his bout with HLLE?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

Your a good person, best of luck.
I would think there might be some regrowth but not a significant amount.
It's possible that the fish will adapt to it's injury and live a long happy life.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi all,

a little background…

A few months back there was an ad in the local classifieds for a marine tank being shut down. I wasn't interested in the tank, but perhaps some of the livestock. I have a RS 300XL that was up for about 8 months at the time.. The seller advised that he had some fish in there but he wasn‘t sure what was left as the tank was in his old home which he rents to his son for the last year.. so I head out there to have a look. It was a disaster. The tank hadn’t been properly kept for some time. There were a couple mature and mated clowns, and a WC yellow tang. The tang had been only fed pellets for a year and was being bullied by the clowns, so needless to say, the tang was in bad shape. The fins were practically gone and the only colour I could see on it was white. Out of mercy I took the fish, dropped off the clowns to the LFS, but kept the tang in hopes of nursing him back to health and get a Hawaiian YT for free.
It’s been a few months and the colour has mostly come back, but his fins don’t appear like they are coming back. (See photos). He gets a daily steady diet of both green and red Nour, put on a clip every couple hours. He gets fed frozen mysis and brine soaked in vitamin M, garlic and selcon. its appetite is strong and it‘s a model citizen in the tank.

Can the fins grow back or at that point, is the fish as good as it’s going to get given his bout with HLLE?

Thanks in advance.

The fish is too distant in the pics to tell anything. Please resubmit pics a little closer with a little brighter white intensity

 

[littlefoxx]

Hi all,

a little background…

A few months back there was an ad in the local classifieds for a marine tank being shut down. I wasn't interested in the tank, but perhaps some of the livestock. I have a RS 300XL that was up for about 8 months at the time.. The seller advised that he had some fish in there but he wasn‘t sure what was left as the tank was in his old home which he rents to his son for the last year.. so I head out there to have a look. It was a disaster. The tank hadn’t been properly kept for some time. There were a couple mature and mated clowns, and a WC yellow tang. The tang had been only fed pellets for a year and was being bullied by the clowns, so needless to say, the tang was in bad shape. The fins were practically gone and the only colour I could see on it was white. Out of mercy I took the fish, dropped off the clowns to the LFS, but kept the tang in hopes of nursing him back to health and get a Hawaiian YT for free.
It’s been a few months and the colour has mostly come back, but his fins don’t appear like they are coming back. (See photos). He gets a daily steady diet of both green and red Nour, put on a clip every couple hours. He gets fed frozen mysis and brine soaked in vitamin M, garlic and selcon. its appetite is strong and it‘s a model citizen in the tank.

Can the fins grow back or at that point, is the fish as good as it’s going to get given his bout with HLLE?

Thanks in advance.

Awe I love rescue fish

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi all,

a little background…

A few months back there was an ad in the local classifieds for a marine tank being shut down. I wasn't interested in the tank, but perhaps some of the livestock. I have a RS 300XL that was up for about 8 months at the time.. The seller advised that he had some fish in there but he wasn‘t sure what was left as the tank was in his old home which he rents to his son for the last year.. so I head out there to have a look. It was a disaster. The tank hadn’t been properly kept for some time. There were a couple mature and mated clowns, and a WC yellow tang. The tang had been only fed pellets for a year and was being bullied by the clowns, so needless to say, the tang was in bad shape. The fins were practically gone and the only colour I could see on it was white. Out of mercy I took the fish, dropped off the clowns to the LFS, but kept the tang in hopes of nursing him back to health and get a Hawaiian YT for free.
It’s been a few months and the colour has mostly come back, but his fins don’t appear like they are coming back. (See photos). He gets a daily steady diet of both green and red Nour, put on a clip every couple hours. He gets fed frozen mysis and brine soaked in vitamin M, garlic and selcon. its appetite is strong and it‘s a model citizen in the tank.

Can the fins grow back or at that point, is the fish as good as it’s going to get given his bout with HLLE?

Thanks in advance.

Yellow tangs (and some other Zebrasoma tangs) show HLLE differently than other fish - notably, erosion to the fins like this. In my experience, once this develops, it won't resolve, but the fish can live in this condition if you feed it well and keep it from getting bullied.

Here is a related article I had written about tank raised YT:

Captive-Bred Yellow Tangs - showing HLLE? - CORAL Magazine

I've seen photographs of wild Black Tangs, taken with flash photography, where they show what looks like classic HLLE lesions, but which is simply due to the camera flash.

www.coralmagazine.com

 

[Ziggy17]

I appreciate the responses. From all that I’ve read this fish won’t be the prize Yellow Tang but he’s a cool and friendly fish that seems to be happy. I guess that’s better than a stunning fish that’s a jerk…

 

[OrionN]

That is actually fat tang, but horrible color and deformed, eroded fins. I don't think his fins will be regrown. I guess it is sort of equivalent to a person that had no veggie and vitamins. Just a lot of nutrient poor high caloric intake. Sick fat. I do think the fins erosion are permanent, while the color likely can recover with good diet.

Good luck with him. You are very kind heart.

 

[Ziggy17]

That is actually fat tang, but horrible color and deformed, eroded fins. I don't think his fins will be regrown. I guess it is sort of equivalent to a person that had no veggie and vitamins. Just a lot of nutrient poor high caloric intake. Sick fat. I do think the fins erosion are permanent, while the color likely can recover with good diet.

Good luck with him. You are very kind heart.

All those things are 100% true. But he’s still the best buddy a fish can ask for.

My Yellow Tang is awesome.

So about 6 months ago I rescued a yellow tang from a disaster. He was in a bad way from HLLE. Anyhow, he’s doing awesome and is paying karma forward. I recently grabbed another Anthia and the Flame Angel was giving it a hard time (go figure). The YT has been the tank boss since I got him here...

www.reef2reef.com