# Black spots getting worse....help



## justinf67 (Jul 19, 2009)

I have seen a good amount of flashing from a lot of my fish. I lost 2 Msobo. water quality is great. ammonia 0ppm, nitrite 0ppm, and nitrate is around 10ppm. I ordered msobo from a vendor on here, and had them in quarantine for 3 weeks. one died during that time. from the beginning, 2 or 3 had a few patches of black on them. I thought it was poor genetics. I added them to my main tank...

I have since seen 3 of my red zebras getting some black spots randomly on their bodies. Some of the msobos have gotten worse. One has black flecks all over his body like freckles. In the middle of his dorsal fin, it seems that a TINY part is worn away. he/she is the worst looking one with spots....

On a side note, I have seen the same black spotting on a lot of the cichlids at my lfs that I go to a lot.

I have done a lot of research and it boils down to diet, stress, or a parasite from what I have read... Their diet consists of NLS 1mm pellets. so that chucks out too much spirulina... stress is not an issue to me. they have lots of hiding spots, are very personable and generally I dont have problems with them.....which leads me to parasite. the degeneration of the fin on the one, and the flashing are my clues here....what can i do here???? i have temp at 82 and started salt treatment. 2 tablespoons per gallon...they were being fed metro soaked food not too long ago.....what medicine should i use to treat? i really am at a loss here....


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

Hi Justin

are the black spots on top of the skin--like a growth, or is it more like the skin is colored black?

Any fuzzy, slimy growth on any of the fish?

The only parasite that looks like black spots on the fish is quite rare in aquariums as it's life cycle involves living in a snail, then getting eaten by a fish, then the fish gets eaten by a bird and then the bird relieves itself in the water and the cycle begins anew. You could conceivably have an 'outbreak' of this parasite in the aquarium if infected snails were introduced but the parasite would soon die off as it needs to _go through the bird_,* ha!*, literally, to complete it's life cycle. 
(And by the way, this parasite seldom causes any long term problems in the fish it infects)

I would try cutting down on how much you feed them if you're feeding them more than one small feeding a day. 
Other than diet and injury I don't know what else would cause so many of your fish to have black spots.

Robin


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## justinf67 (Jul 19, 2009)

the black spots are not raised. they are more like pigment or ink spots. nothing fuzzy, no growths on any fish. I do get flashing from the fish.

I have read about the black spot disease. I actually am thinking it may a case of this. I have read that either wild caught or fish farms can be the cause.... I know that my lfs gets a lot of his fish from a local fish farm here in florida. also, I got my msobo(which has the worst spotting) from a vendor on here that gets his fish from the florida fish farms... I have noticed lately that the big box chains(petco, petsmart) have this same ink spots on their red zebras and a few others as well... seeing as how i see this on fish all over my area leads me to believe its an outbreak on the florida fish farms of something. maybe the black spot disease...

I will feed less of the nls, but i dont think that is my issue....should i switch up my food? anything i can treat with? i am currently running the tank at 2 tablespoons per gallon salt and 82 degrees...


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## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

> i am currently running the tank at 2 tablespoons per gallon salt


2 TABLEspoons or 2 TEAspoons? Unless you're doing a salt bath--which is short dunk for the fish-- you really don't want to go stronger than 1 tablespoon per gallon--And that's the max. Normally for something like ich we go with 2-5 tablespoons per FIVE gallons water, the amount depending on whether you're also raising the heat.

I wouldn't switch your food. As long as you're not overfeeding them then the NLS is good.

If per chance this is the black spot disease caused by a parasite, and it would be rare, water changes and time will end the life cycle of the parasites.

As long as your fish are eating and swimming normally and there's no fuzzy growth on their bodies then I don't think you have anything to worry about. Make double sure that your test kits are not out of date--and that you're using a good quality declorinator. If your tap water has chloramines added to it then you need to be using a declorinator that properly deals with chloramines--check out the article linked below for more info.

Robin


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## justinf67 (Jul 19, 2009)

I meant per 2 tablespoons per 5 gallons, lol....22 tablespoons into my 55 gallon. not overfeeding, I feed them enough for them to eat all the pellets within 15 or 20 seconds. not much even makes it down to the bottom...I have taken to softening the food beforehand as well..

They are swimming normally, just flashing. nothing fuzzy on them. I just got a new freshwater master kit off bigals maybe a month ago... I use Prime, which from what I have read is the best.

I may just up my water changes for a few weeks, and keep the salt treatment going for 2 weeks...
hopefully it clears up..


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