# Black spots on Mbuna



## Hermitkid84 (Jan 24, 2007)

Some of the denizens of my 90 gallon aquarium have had these ugly black spots on their lips and region in front of their pectoral fins for months now. They don't appear to be negatively affecting their health, but I hate the sight of them. I've tried a couple different medications over 2-week periods, which was successful until I stopped treating them. None of the fish appear to be rubbing against the rocks or otherwise acting erratic. Ammonia levels are at 0 and Nitrates are always kept below 20 ppm, and I do 50% water changes weekly. Temp is at 80f, and Ph is always kept at around 7.8. I just wanted to know if anybody had any suggestions of medication types and frequencies. I have done some research on this site have only found speculative theories on what this 'black ick' could be. Could these spots have anything to do with the substrate? I've had white silicon pool filter sand that has been in there for the 2 years I have had the tank. However, the black spots only started appearing upon the arrival of a white top cyno shipment I recieved exactly a year ago, and these fish are far more afflicted by the spots than the others in the tank. I have a ton of juvies from the breeding activity, but I am hesitant to sell them/give them away w/ these ugly spots on them! Any help would be great. Thanks.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I wish I had more answers for you than you found in your search. This is a question that crops up at least once a week, and to my knowledge we don't know anymore than we did years ago.

It's usually contributed to one of three things - I'm sure you've read it, but I'll post it again for those who haven't...

1) Stress

2) too much spirulina in the diet

3) parasites

One question for you, though...Do you find the spots come and go, or are they steadily getting worse?

I've experienced this twice in my tanks...Both times it involved females at spawning time, and in both cases the spots disappeared when the stress level went down in the tank.

On another unrelated occasion, I had two blood parrots in a tank by themselves, and came home to find one had turned totally black and died during the day. The other one (both were fully grown and the orangy pink colour) was nudging the dead one and had a few scattered black spots on it. The spots got larger over the next couple of days, but disappeared completely when I brought home another BP to keep him/her company.

I would contribute all instances in my tanks to stress.


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## Hermitkid84 (Jan 24, 2007)

I've found the spots come and go- and yes I have read some of the previous posts, however I think I may be leaning to the fact that they are some type of harmless parasite (b/c of lack of any better explanation)

(1) Spiriluna: I stopped feeding my fish exclusively HBH veggie flake a couple of months ago, and only feed them this about twice a week (the other 4-5 days I give them NLS)

(2) Stress: All the fish appear to be healthy and are feeding well (of course except for the holding females) No fins are clamped to this side, + the white tops are among the largest fish in the tank (the only real fish everyone is subordinate to is 'Gus' the 7" Syno Eupterus, I doubt they're stresed about him, they have tons of hiding places over 125 lbs of tufa)

(3) Parasites: I'm leaning this way. As I read in a previous post, females who were afflicted w/ the black spots have them on their newly spit fry as well. I found this on just about every spit fry on 4-5 separate occasions. In addition, the spots drastically recede after administering medication for about a week, then promptly come back. I've already tried about 3-4 different types, but hate to add it to the water if nothing is really wrong with the fish. Furthermore, the spots seem to get better for a couple days after the weekly water change, although this could be my imagination.

*A last theory I want to propose is perhaps the choice of aquascaping: the tufa stone. Maybe they could be bruises from running into the sharp edges? I have no idea, but thanks for replying to my question and further input would be greatly appreciated!


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## Bachachi (Sep 8, 2004)

I'm currently dealing with these black spots on my Lamprologus sexfasciatus. They started out a few months ago on the tail fin and then spread to the anal fin, at the same time the fish became less active and ate much less than usual. I'm feeding Dainichi cichlid food which does have spirulina as an ingredient, but I also feed mysis shrimp, flake food and blood worms. This condition stayed stable for a few months with no other apparent deterioration, and then over night the fish was covered in more of these black patches, loss of color and erratic swimming. I thought he would be dead by the next day. I had some Maracyn-Two on hand so I've been treating him for the last six days with this and he has responded well, his color has returned and he is swimming and eating normal again. The spots are not all quite gone yet, but I will treat till they have disappeared. Hopefully this treatment will take care of the problem. Its interesting to note that none of the other fish in the tank were affected by these black spots.


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