Missing scales

Over the past week or so I have found several of my fish missing scales on their sides and what looks like something eating away at their faces. The affected fish are an emperor angel juv. changing 4"-5" and a blue angel 5"-6". Their diet includes mysis fed 2x a day and alternating seaweed sheets (green and red) every other day. I just had to clean out my quarantine tank and that should be ready in another day or two. I change 15 gallons of water a week.
Spec gravity is 1.022.
Nitrites are at 0
Nitrates are at 0
PH is at 8.1
Ammonia is at 0

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks

kevdogg said:

Over the past week or so I have found several of my fish missing scales on their sides and what looks like something eating away at their faces. The affected fish are an emperor angel juv. changing 4"-5" and a blue angel 5"-6". Their diet includes mysis fed 2x a day and alternating seaweed sheets (green and red) every other day. I just had to clean out my quarantine tank and that should be ready in another day or two. I change 15 gallons of water a week.
Spec gravity is 1.022.
Nitrites are at 0
Nitrates are at 0
PH is at 8.1
Ammonia is at 0

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks

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it sounds like a lovely parasite could you snap a photo and can you see any thing on the fish that may look like a little bug or some sort of crustacean?

Definitely sounds like some sort of parasite, but I would also add that a more varied diet would be better for the fish.

Hello and Welcome!

Sounds like it could be HLLE, especially considering the effected fish. Do you run carbon in those filters?

I do run carbon in the filters. Here is the pic of the blue angel. The other angel would not come out of hiding while I was taking pictures.

little_fish said:

Hello and Welcome!

Sounds like it could be HLLE, especially considering the effected fish. Do you run carbon in those filters?

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After some research I do think that this issue is HLLE. Im going to remove the carbon and do a massive water change. Any suggestions on reversing HLLE?

Keep your water quality pristine, feed the best foods you can and vary the diet as much as possible and keep them stressfree.

I would stop feeding them just mysid shrimp, and instead look into a bunch of different foods like blood worms, scallops, table shrimp. There are lots of great mixed blends you can get to also feed, Rod's food is a great one. Also you should get something that is specific for angels, most eat sponges and tunicates in the wild. There are few mixed blends just for angels. I would get into a variety of greens to feed them like spinach, kale, peas, cucumbers, squash, carrots, and even strawberries, but dont for the daily seaweed sheets either.

Its really hard to recover from HLLE but it can be done. Good luck!