Captive reaised snails do not carry the larvae responsible for the condition. Only snails in the wild who have been exposed to the poop of infected birds (commonly gulls but not always) will have the larvae.
Is this black spot disease? or something else?
- Thread starter chefkeith
- Start date
Keith, you care to show a full shot of your tank. I'd like to see the setup. Trying to get some ideas on a good freshwater landscape.
Update-
Great news and Bad news-
1st the bad- This is what I found in one of my tanks 2 weeks ago. (about the same time AC went down). The remains of a poor clown loach and missing its head and tail.
This is my 1st clown loach death I've had in about 2 years. I think it was due to the to the possible black spot disease or whatever it is that gave my clowns the black spots.
Shortly after I flushed the remains of the clown loach down the toilet I decided to Quarantine some of clowns to see if I could help them with some meds.
I took my 90g tank, broke it down, and turned it into a Q tank. I wanted to remove all the sand because I think it was a breeding ground for the parasite that was causing all of the nasty black spots. I replaced the sand with a small pea gravel. I also set-up a few pieces of slate for the clown loaches to hide under.
With 12 clowns in the Q-tank,
I then used a wide spectrum anti-parasitic and anti-bacterial control product called Paragon II by Aquatronic. This product is no longer available because Aquatronics went out of business. The main ingredients of Paragon II are - Metronidazole, Furazolidone, NeomycinSulfate, Naladixic Acid, And Sodium Chloride.
and now for the great news-
After 3 treatments and 2 weeks gone by, 95% of the black spots are gone. Problem is that I have no more Paragon II left. I will continue the treatments with a Jungle Labs Product called Parasite Clear until my clowns are spot free. The main ingredients of the Parasite Clear product are -Praziquantel, metronidazole, and Acriflavine. I hope this is just as good or better than the Paragon II.
My next decision is what to do with the clown loaches that are in my other tanks. They still have the black spots really bad. I could turn my 95g tank into a q-tank and put the rest of the clown loaches in there. Or I could go the expensive route and just treat all my tanks. I'll try to make up my mind by Tomorrow.
I hope everyone on the net can learn something from this rare black spot experience. I'll keep this thread updated for better or worse.
Great news and Bad news-
1st the bad- This is what I found in one of my tanks 2 weeks ago. (about the same time AC went down). The remains of a poor clown loach and missing its head and tail.
This is my 1st clown loach death I've had in about 2 years. I think it was due to the to the possible black spot disease or whatever it is that gave my clowns the black spots.
Shortly after I flushed the remains of the clown loach down the toilet I decided to Quarantine some of clowns to see if I could help them with some meds.
I took my 90g tank, broke it down, and turned it into a Q tank. I wanted to remove all the sand because I think it was a breeding ground for the parasite that was causing all of the nasty black spots. I replaced the sand with a small pea gravel. I also set-up a few pieces of slate for the clown loaches to hide under.
With 12 clowns in the Q-tank,
I then used a wide spectrum anti-parasitic and anti-bacterial control product called Paragon II by Aquatronic. This product is no longer available because Aquatronics went out of business. The main ingredients of Paragon II are - Metronidazole, Furazolidone, NeomycinSulfate, Naladixic Acid, And Sodium Chloride.
and now for the great news-
After 3 treatments and 2 weeks gone by, 95% of the black spots are gone. Problem is that I have no more Paragon II left. I will continue the treatments with a Jungle Labs Product called Parasite Clear until my clowns are spot free. The main ingredients of the Parasite Clear product are -Praziquantel, metronidazole, and Acriflavine. I hope this is just as good or better than the Paragon II.
My next decision is what to do with the clown loaches that are in my other tanks. They still have the black spots really bad. I could turn my 95g tank into a q-tank and put the rest of the clown loaches in there. Or I could go the expensive route and just treat all my tanks. I'll try to make up my mind by Tomorrow.
I hope everyone on the net can learn something from this rare black spot experience. I'll keep this thread updated for better or worse.
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Hey I have those spots too! I was searching the net and AC for those answers also. So I'll be waiting also to see what other experianced loach keepers have to say. :dance2:
Update-
All of my clowns have been quarantined since my last post on 8-12-2005.
I turned my 95g tank into a q-tank also. So now I have 2 q-tanks set-up and connected together with a water-bridge. I put new gravel in the 95g tank also because I suspect that the sand that was in there was promoting the black spots to multiply.
It's been another 4 weeks and most of my clowns have no black spots at all anymore, just a couple have a few black spots remaining. I have been using "Parasite Clear" from Jungle Labs and "Triple Sulfa" to treat the fish. It takes about 2 weeks with the Parasite Clear before there are any noticable results.
On a side note- another one of my clowns that was covered almost completely with the black spots died a week ago. When most of the black spots fell off, the loach had open wounds on about half of its body and he probably died from the secondary infections that developed.
Next time, I'll be more careful with the usage of the Parasite Clear and use it for a shorter period of time. It's probably best to use the Parasite Clear for only 2 weeks at a time, then get the meds out of the water, and just use an antibotic for a few weeks. Then repeat the Parasite Clear treatment after about 2 weeks.
Right now all the meds are removed from my 2 q-tanks and I will do another treatment with the Parasite Clear in a few weeks if needed.
All of my clowns have been quarantined since my last post on 8-12-2005.
I turned my 95g tank into a q-tank also. So now I have 2 q-tanks set-up and connected together with a water-bridge. I put new gravel in the 95g tank also because I suspect that the sand that was in there was promoting the black spots to multiply.
It's been another 4 weeks and most of my clowns have no black spots at all anymore, just a couple have a few black spots remaining. I have been using "Parasite Clear" from Jungle Labs and "Triple Sulfa" to treat the fish. It takes about 2 weeks with the Parasite Clear before there are any noticable results.
On a side note- another one of my clowns that was covered almost completely with the black spots died a week ago. When most of the black spots fell off, the loach had open wounds on about half of its body and he probably died from the secondary infections that developed.
Next time, I'll be more careful with the usage of the Parasite Clear and use it for a shorter period of time. It's probably best to use the Parasite Clear for only 2 weeks at a time, then get the meds out of the water, and just use an antibotic for a few weeks. Then repeat the Parasite Clear treatment after about 2 weeks.
Right now all the meds are removed from my 2 q-tanks and I will do another treatment with the Parasite Clear in a few weeks if needed.
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I am glad that things are getting better. My experience with black spot disease was not a good one. I got a wild caught geo that had black spot disease but when I tried treating it with Parasite Clear from Jungle Labs it just died. Apparently, it had a bunch of internal parasites that probably killed him.
You didn't mention about the results of UV treatment. Did it help at all?
You didn't mention about the results of UV treatment. Did it help at all?
I don't think the UV Sterilizer helped at all. I only had it running for about 2-3 weeks though.
Probably the best thing I did was getting rid of the sand substrate that I had. I don't think any anti parasite medication can penetrate sand and kill off the black spot parasitic worms when they are embedded in it. I think the reason the black spots got so bad and spread so quickly is because my clowns sleep in one big group, laying down on their sides, under some slate on the sand. It was probably simple for the black spot hatchlings to find a host when they came out of the sand.
Probably the best thing I did was getting rid of the sand substrate that I had. I don't think any anti parasite medication can penetrate sand and kill off the black spot parasitic worms when they are embedded in it. I think the reason the black spots got so bad and spread so quickly is because my clowns sleep in one big group, laying down on their sides, under some slate on the sand. It was probably simple for the black spot hatchlings to find a host when they came out of the sand.
Since digenetic ***es do not reproduce in semi-closed captive environments and direct fish-to-fish transmission is impossible for these critters, IMHO you are risking your fish to toxicity from both the meds and from the death of any encysted larvae (black spots) for no reason whatsoever. NIMFT.
