Sick, Malnourished or Normail?

I'm a newbie :wave:, so take it easy on me if you please; I've got a 58 gallon tank with 60lbs of live sand, 35lbs of live rock (still saving money to buy more), a koralia 3 blower, JBJ 100 gallon filter pump with built in UV, a JBJ compact fluorescent (dual bulb, one white, one blue, on for about 6 hours) and an automatic feeder (2 full feedings per day, and one half feeding in the middle of the night for my large fuzzy hermit).

Fish: 1 blue demon damsel (only survivor of 3 damsels that cycled my tank), 1 yellow tang, 1 blue headed wrasse, 1 fuzzy hermit (big sucker), 2 turbo snails, and a sea hare that recently died .

Water tests: Temp is 79 degrees; PH is 8.0 (up from 7.8, been battling that since the beginning, didn't know you had to add PH Buffer to your fresh water until about a month ago); Amonia, Nitrate, and Phosphate are all 0; Nitrates are 20ppm (high, I know, gonna change out 10 gallons tomorrow); and Salt content is at 1.024

Everything has been going fine lately, everybody is moving well and eating, no fighting, no problems until the dead sea hare, which, according to my LFS, ate himself to death "probably". What has got me worried now is my blue headed wrasse who has developed this purplish coloration above his eyes (pictured). I know his color changes when the lights go out, but this purple spot is definitely new; what I don't know is if this is a disease in my tank which may soon attack my other fish, some sort of tumor, malnutrition, or something that happens normally with age and I'm merely just over-reacting.

Sorry for the long post, but it always seems like the one's with the answers are always asking for more info; so I tried to include everything but I'm sure I'm forgetting something. In any case, I appreciate your time reading and answering my question. :bowdown:

can you get a closer picture of the spot in question

How's this?

He could be starting to change into his adult coloration.

That would be my guess too...

Thank you Biff and Yote for the input...I changed out 10 gallons and got a cleaner shrimp (Scarlet Skunk) today just in case since my tang has been doing a little excessive rubbing on the sand and rocks as of last night. We'll see what happens, luckily there have been no white spots showing up yet.

as long as the tang stays active and continues to eat i wouldnt worry about him, and same goes for all your other fish

I agree on the fish, appears to be pigmentation not disease. keep us posted.

Thanks all for the re-assurance...I've been adding some vitamins this week as well as laying off the pellets and going with the frozen reef food, and his color does seem to be improving. All fish are moving around well and their appetites are doing extremely well also; in fact, they're eating the reef mix straight from my grabber...it's pretty cool. :bounce:

good to hear

you could also add some garlic to their food this will help them to fight off any diseases such as ich (if it happens to attack) Its a great cheap preventative.

and I will agree with the others about your wrasse.

winyfrog said:

you could also add some garlic to their food this will help them to fight off any diseases such as ich (if it happens to attack) Its a great cheap preventative.

Click to expand...

i thought garlic was just to entice a feeding response

It helps boost their immune system just like it does for us. And parasites don't care for the taste either. As well as helping to incourage finicky eaters.

winyfrog said:

you could also add some garlic to their food this will help them to fight off any diseases such as ich (if it happens to attack) Its a great cheap preventative.

and I will agree with the others about your wrasse.

Click to expand...

I've heard people mention adding garlic before, but I wasn't quite sure of the application. Do you mean take minced garlic cloves and mix it with the food that I put in the tank or do I just coat the food with some sort of garlic oil or powder?

no, you buy a bottle of garlic extract. this would be a good one to be exact

You could also squeeze the juice out of the clove and add it to the food.

I love how it's called "Garlic EXTREME!"...one of the most peaceful (kinda) hobbies around and we're adding spices...TO THE EXTREME :chair:!

SOLD!

Hey Kid. Great signature! (and welcome)

One of my favorite pieces in my tank is my fuzzy hermit...he's just so entertaining even though he does like to attack the occasional snail every once in a while. So when I saw people on this site talking about getting rid of their "evil hermits/crabs", I was glad to see an "organization" :bowdown: that backed up these "misunderstood" creatures.

With that, I'll stop using "quoatation marks" and express my sarcasm otherwise ::pinky to lips:: :evil!?!?: