New information gathered from the public aquarium community aims to shed new light on the age old problem Head and Lateral Line Erosion, HLLE. Hole-in-the-head, as it it is also known, occurs most frequently in deep bodied marine and freshwater fish including Surgeonfish, Angelfish and large Cichlids. The information was gathered from a survey that Jay Hemdal passed around to other public aquarists and experienced marine life slingers. A general consensus about the causes of HLLE seem to focus around water quality with links to ozone use, medication and lack of trace elements and nutrition once again with a connection to the availability of HUFAs and trace elements. To support these views many respondents replied that they witnessed improvements in the health of HLLE afflicted fish by moving to a new aquarium with better quality and feeding more enriched foods. The exciting news to come out of the report is a regenerative treatment gel called Regranex (or Becaplermin). When this gel treatment is successively applied to the HLLE damaged tissue, that area is stimulated to grow new skin and blood vessels. Let’s hope this treatment proves successful at healing some large long term captive marine fish which otherwise may not be taken in by a potential keeper. Full write up, follow the read link. Enjoy the desktop background of the completely HLLE free clown surgeonfish, Acanthurus lineatus.
