fish fins and body sickness? help asap

[TruonkQ]

Hey guys, its been a while since i've been on maast. However i'm running into a problem i noticed a week ago. First of all i'm not a big fan of water changes. I think its been about about 10 months since i've done a 20% water change. I have about 30-40 fish in my 650g and notice some of my tangs, foxface, and angels were shedding. Fins were damaged and now some parts are scared on their bodies. I thought they would be fighting or rubbing their bodies against the rocks. However, there was no sign of ick and the fish were not rubbing against the rocks. They swim fine around the tank and all eat well. Untill yesterday i noticed that my powder brown stopped eating and my koran angel was shedding close to the face. This has never happened before untill i added one box of the diamond carbon too the tank to clarify the water approx. 1 1/2 ago. Is this a sign of Lateral lime disease, PH problem or something like that? I've done a 25% water change today, took out the carbon, and will see how well they eat tonight. Water peram is fine btw.

[ClownReef®]

Glad to hear you did a water change. They can be underestimated and are VERY important (Richard and i discussed it on another thread not long ago).

Shedding can be related to HLLE (Head and Lateral Line Erosion). More than shedding you may see tissue decay..maybe some open pitted wounds in the head and lateral line area (all the fish you listed are susceptible to it). In the short term is not fatal..but if left "untreated" it can eat a fish away. Make sure your fish are eating.. if they are not, the wounds may become infected and a second front will open..more problems.

Poor water quality is a huge theory on why HLLE happens. Id suggest you keep up with tank maintenance.. this includes good water quality.

All i can really suggest is make sure they are eating..feed them well. Keep qater quality up and check for secondary infections.

Hopefully Richard will chime in and can add up to this.

Best,

Diego

[ismvel]

Hi, I posted this on another thread...got it from another forum...it is about the 4th post down...on HLLE

http://www.maast.org/index.php?name=...amp;highlight=

[TruonkQ]

I've had no problems with my tank. Water quality is fine, ph fine, nitrate 0, amonia slightly above 0, nitrite 0. The **** carbon was the problem. I used it to keep the water clean, but had no clue that would be a big effect to the fish within a week. All the fish in the tank seems to be more active and all are eating well. Fox face looks 5 x better, however the powder brown has cuttle flower now. I don't think i've ever won a fight against that. The only way to get rid of that is to cut it off right? I've tried to QT my french angel once that caught black cuttle flower and ended up cutting off parts of the fin's that it was attached to. It was strong enough to survive through that and lived for a few months later, but went away on me. i've read somewhere on a web site stating that magnesuim would help prevent HLLE correct?