Tomini has a blotchy face

[Linda]

What it says on the tin really. I did change the flow pattern this afternoon and thought it might be stressed, but it's not gone
It's feeding OK but seems a bit skittish.

Anyone seen this before and is it anything to worry about?

[LTD]

Nori

Lots of it

Spirulina flake / ON F2 flake will also help loads. It needs greens

[Linda]

Have to try and force feed the bugger then. I do feed spirulina flake which it eats but I stopped putting nori in cause it never touched it.

I will start it again tomorrow Thanks Steve.

[Miggsy]

Looks like HLLE to me .. do what steve said and smash as much nori in to it as it will take.

[davethefish]

hi linda,
unfortunately looks like early stages of HLLE to me too,
ime it's usually water quality or water maturity issues.
have you tested for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?

good news is it is totally and easily curable, and fish usually make a 100% recovery

[Linda]

Havn't tested for ammonia or nitrite Dave. I don't usually bother unless there's an issue. All other params are as they should be and all other fish seem OK.
Will run them tomorrow.

Just been chatting to Steve and I'm going to try a different presentation of nori, and feed nothing else in the mornings when they are hungry to see if that will tempt him to eat it. I have some of that vererinary gel stuff in the cupboard as well from the seahorse days, so a bit of that won't do any harm.

[Miggsy]

HLLE would be less likely in the other fish Linda as tangs generally seem affected by a dietary issue from what i've seen .. i'm not a fan of the sprays etc as they are a little gimmicky for me but they may help here when sprayed on the nori.

The only time I had a tang that wouldn't take nori I tempted it with other greens first .. blanched broccoli worked but I was laughed at by an ex sponsor for introducing a product they'd never see in the wild .. he didn't grasp the irony when he saw the ingredients in his beloved flake.

[Linda]

I'll give the broccoli a go if I can't get it to eat the nori.

The supplement stuff I have is this:

http://www.zoolife.com/anutrition_vet_refgel.html

Fish love it and it's good for grazers as you can press it into crevices in the rock.Organic marine algae is first on the list of ingredients, so it might help as a back up.

[Linda]

Update

Over the weekend I tried every which way to get him to eat nori - left it loose in the clip, folded it tight into the clip, tied it to a rock - all to no avail. Stupid fish would not even go in the same half of the tank as the nori Most of the other fish had a nibble even the wrasse, but the tang kept his distance............and the patches spread

Yesterday I started feeding a mix of Julian Sprung's Sea Veggies and spirulina flake in the mornings. Some of the fish have one less meal a day now as they don't eat ''greens'', but I tend to overfeed so am not too worried.

The good news is that after just 2 days of sea veggies/spirulina, the blotches are nearly all gone.

Thanks for all the help guys

[Norvern Rob]

Great news Linda

[Chew]

Great news linda!!! The bristle tooth tangs do tend to be a little harder to get feeding on nori than other tangs. Top work!

Keep persisting with the nori as it will eventually take it and its the easiest way to keep them fed up on greens in the long run. If its a nervous fish then it might be scared of the clip etc so keeping that in the tank all the time should make it get used to it.

[Wilky]

Glad its looking like you've cracked it Linda, my two bristletooths took ages to latch onto the nori although the yellow found it more or less straight away. I mixed some strong flavoured blanched greens in with the nori at first like spinach and rocket lettuce and this seemed to attract them.

never tried broccoli, i think i'll give it a go next time i steam some.

[TrevNW]

Great news Linda

Soon he'll be on five a day like the rest of us

[LTD]

Brilliant news Linda