Black spots on Swordtail! HELP!

[yashinfan]

I had just transferred my female swordtail to my 30 gallon tank after being quarantined for fin rot for the past two months. Today is the 3rd day since then. Tonight I went to feed my fish and she was lying on the bottom of the tank. I finally got her to move and saw she was dragging her tail and that there were black spots all on her lower body (not the fins). I have never seen this before! PLZ HELP!

[yashinfan]

Could it be black spot disease? How do you cure it??!! Is it going to kill my fish very fast?!

[travelinman1969]

More info plz. Water parameters? Can you get her in a net and see if they are spots or organisims. My uncle had a breeder tank and had something like it, but it was years ago. See if I can get him on the horn while you get back to me.

[yashinfan]

Originally posted by travelinman1969
More info plz. Water parameters?

All the other fish are fine. I'll go do a check but it should be pH of 7.6, amonia 0, and temp 24C. I'm gonna go check, I'll write back only if it's not as I expect.

[travelinman1969]

Okay, uncle says it is black spot. Says it usually come in tank where salt is added. I'm going to assume you do add salt. I'm not familiar with it but found this link:

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/compldiagnodisease/a/aa041701.htm

More for a saltwater tank but should help understand it. Jungle Labs suggests it's parasite clear product. You can get it at Petsmart in the morning. I've had a lot of luck with Jungle in my smaller tanks. Doesn't work as well with huge tanks. Good luck!!

[yashinfan]

Weird, I don't use salt! But everything else makes sense... Does this Jungle Lab stuff affect plants? I really don't want to kill them! Do you know what type of fish it affects? I have 10 zebra danios and another swordtail in that tank... eep!

[travelinman1969]

Every Jungle product I've used is does not hurt plants. Check the package first. Mardel makes good stuff too. Both are available at Petsmart. Read the packages, don't listen to the help at the store. Again, Good Luck!! From experience, time is critical!!

[yashinfan]

She's still alive- so far. I'm going this afternoon to PetSmart and hopefully it'll work. She just lies on the gravel in a ball, it's like she can't use her tail at all. :sad

[travelinman1969]

The tail isn't rotting, is it? Also, add a bit of salt, aquarium salt, and get the carbon out of the filters.

[yashinfan]

Salt? But I thought salt caused the problem?
Anyway, I bought the Jungle Lab meds, but I only put in 2 tabs instead of 3, but I will put the 3rd one in tonight. I'm so scared something will happen to the fish because of overdose. Well the sword had finrot before, but it had gone away! Is that a sign on the disease?

[travelinman1969]

Just the way you said the tail couldn't be used scared me. Salt will help with the healing process. The salt thing from earlier is that, black spot disease usually happens in tank where salt is added. Has nothing to do with it really and should not make the symptoms any worse.

Do the full dose, sometimes if you don't you actually won't help the situation any better. Don't worry about the others they will be fine. It's a type of ick from what I'm reading and they will also have the parasite but will not show syptoms. This is common with ick. Usually scaleless fish get it first, pictus, id's, etc. If you have no scaleless fish, swords, platties, etc. get it first, in my experiences. Put the other tab in now. Wait till tomorrow afternoon and do it again. Persistance is the only thing you can do. Do the water changes as the directions tell you. Did you get Mardel or Jungle? You may have to treat for 2 weeks maybe 3, but 3 would be a drastic case of it. Good luck!!

[yashinfan]

Okay, so the third tab was added about 5 hours after the first 2. It says to wait 48 hours between doses and that a 25% water change should be done as well. I got the Jungle Labs one. No other fish is showing signs of illness, so hopefully if I have to lose any fish, it will only be one.

[travelinman1969]

What did you get from Jungle? Regular Ich is supposed to be done every 24 hours. Hope she makes it. :(

[yashinfan]

The parasite clear like you said to buy. How much salt should I add?

[travelinman1969]

One tablespoon per 5 gallons, but I use half that. One per 10 gallons. Remember to add back what you take out during water changes.

[yashinfan]

So my fish was doing much better until I did a water change. It was only 2 gallons out of 30. The next day she was back sitting on the gravel all curled up. I thought maybe I had dilluted the meds so I added another tablet of parasite clear. Now she's swimming around but she isn't using her tail. What should I do? I didn't add the salt yet, but I will right now.

[travelinman1969]

Time and TLC is all you can really do right now.