MHLLE / Coral Beauty

gjustinj · Aug 23, 2017

Hi everyone,

We recently purchased a coral beauty from someone, and after a few weeks in the QT we did not see any dustings on the fins or any kind of velvet tint or white salt particle specs on the fish. It looked pretty good aside for a slightly discolored (faint) face so we moved it to our DT.

Today I was observing the fish because it still has not eaten in several weeks the food we provided (mysis, pellets, seaweed/algae, and phytoplankton), and while observing I noticed a medium sized white spot on its head by its eye that looks like a flesh wound.

I went online and started to research what it could be and I came across the term MHLLE and a picture of a coral beauty that looks very similar to ours. After reading it seems the fish can still survive although it will cause slight deformations and holes in its head and spine.

My concern here is will this spread through my DT and effect other fish? We have two clowns, an Azure Damsel, and a Green and Blue Chromis in the DT right now along with a bunch of coral and inverts (snails/hermit crabs).

There does not seem to be a cure for this fish or disease and we are very concerned with it spreading through our tank. We just got our fish back over out of QT a few weeks ago after having to treat in a QT for ich using Cupramine (lost 1/2 our fish), and allowing the tank to run fallow for over 78 days.

We just bought a yellow tang, flame angel, royal gramma basslet and fox face from Liveaquaria who are currently in our QT.

Please tell me this is not contagious or spreads through our tank effecting all of our fish.

Here is the pic the closely resembles our fishes face.

gjustinj · Aug 23, 2017

@JaimeAdams

SashimiTurtle · Aug 23, 2017

HLLE usually is seen in tangs in tanks with less than desirable water quality. You can help the fish recover by improving water quality thru better filtration and water changes. HLLE has also been found to be caused by low quality carbon or improper rinsing and usage of carbon. The really fine carbon particles, if allowed to enter the tank, can clog the pores on the head and lateral line of the fish and cause irritation and erosion of tissue. Taking carbon out of the tank or improving the carbon and method of carbon usage can reverse symptoms.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/carbon-proven-to-cause-hlle-in-tangs.187403/

gjustinj · Aug 23, 2017

Robin Haselden said:
HLLE usually is seen in tangs in tanks with less than desirable water quality. You can help the fish recover by improving water quality thru better filtration and water changes. HLLE has also been found to be caused by low quality carbon or improper rinsing and usage of carbon. The really fine carbon particles, if allowed to enter the tank, can clog the pores on the head and lateral line of the fish and cause irritation and erosion of tissue. Taking carbon out of the tank or improving the carbon and method of carbon usage can reverse symptoms.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/carbon-proven-to-cause-hlle-in-tangs.187403/

Hi there! Thank you so much for the quick reply. We do not run any carbon in our DT, also our water quality is pristine. We just did a 20% water change the other day. We got this fish through our fish association for a 'tank tear down' - grabbed him for $20 because we like the Coral Beauty. So are you saying that this disease will eventually reverse itself as long as the water quality is good? We only moved him over to our DT about a week ago. He seems to be happy in there swimming around the rocks and in the caves but his face is slightly dusty and he has a medium sized flesh wound over his eye. We noticed the dusty face while in QT, but the rest of his body was bright (still is), and figured he was just discolored in the face (not knowing about HHLE/MHLLE).

Does this disease spread, or nah?

SashimiTurtle · Aug 23, 2017

It does not spread to other fish. It may not be HLLE, it could be an injury from netting and shipping. Has it been the same since you got him/her? Have you seen the fish eat at all? Angels need a wide variety of food, a food made specific to angels would be best. Maybe try and find something like this at your LFS, or ask if they can order it... shipping on frozen food is stupid.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...VWLft6AVioEgcOmRP2ytLTTMjO-AMEs0aAu5QEALw_wcB

gjustinj · Aug 23, 2017

It did not come in from netting or shipping. We got him from our fish association, one of the tank tear downs for $20. But there was no mention of the fish having any disease, it was supposedly doing just fine. We did QT for a few weeks before moving it over. I am glad to hear that it will not spread because we just bought a handful of beautiful fish from liveaquaria.

I will look into that food!

Humblefish · Aug 23, 2017

I'm not entirely sure that's HLLE. Can we get a few hi-res pics?

gjustinj · Aug 23, 2017

Humblefish said:
I'm not entirely sure that's HLLE. Can we get a few hi-res pics?

I am having a hard time getting any pics - he likes to stay in the caves (that isn't an actual pic of the fish, but one i found online that sort of resembled it).

SashimiTurtle · Aug 23, 2017

Humblefish said:
I'm not entirely sure that's HLLE. Can we get a few hi-res pics?

I don't think so either... looks like some damage from netting and a bacterial infection maybe.

SashimiTurtle · Aug 23, 2017

gjustinj said:
that isn't an actual pic of the fish, but one i found online that sort of resembled it

Oh so now we have "the rest of the story." So he's hiding in caves... Is he swimming into the flow, scratching on any rocks, breathing really heavy?

gjustinj · Aug 23, 2017

I'm not sure what you mean by the rest of the story? To answer your question he is not breathing heavy or brushing up against rocks. He is swimming around quickly in the caves since being introduced to the DT.

Humblefish · Aug 23, 2017

gjustinj said:
I'm not sure what you mean by the rest of the story? To answer your question he is not breathing heavy or brushing up against rocks. He is swimming around quickly in the caves since being introduced to the DT.

Avoiding light is one symptom of Marine Velvet Disease: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/

Are you seeing any of the other symptoms described in that thread?

SashimiTurtle · Aug 23, 2017

gjustinj said:
I'm not sure what you mean by the rest of the story?

Humblefish said:
Avoiding light is one symptom of Marine Velvet Disease: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/

Are you seeing any of the other symptoms described in that thread?

The picture provided is not your fish... sorry if I missed or misread that... If you could get

SashimiTurtle · Aug 23, 2017

An actual picture it would help... sorry if I missed you mentioning you didn't have an actually pic...

Phone service has been screwy today.

gjustinj · Aug 23, 2017

Humblefish said:
Avoiding light is one symptom of Marine Velvet Disease: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/

Are you seeing any of the other symptoms described in that thread?

Just got back the lfs and the coral beauty is out swimming around the tank now. I don't see him swimming into a power head flow, he seems to be nipping at live rock and there are no white specs on his body just a slight discolored face and flesh wound.

He is swimming even in the front of the tank. Does not seem to be scratchin himself on any rocks. He doesn't seem to be positioned in any one place. He is going at the top and bottom bUT when I go near him he bolts away. He seems to be scared of me.

gjustinj · Aug 23, 2017

Pic 1 attached

gjustinj · Aug 23, 2017

Pic 2 attached

gjustinj · Aug 23, 2017

Pic 3 attached

JaimeAdams · Aug 23, 2017

@BIGGUN says that his fish are doing perfectly. Nothing is saying that the fish may not have injured itself by getting stung by a coral scraped against a rock any other possible means of physical trauma.