Black spot disease

kreblak

kreblak

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Mar 13, 2003
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I recently purchased a yellow tang for my 46g aquarium. He was the only fish in the tank. After several days, he developed several small black spots. These multiplied until he was virtually covered with them after about 15 days, and then he died. I know now that this is "black spot disease." My question is: What the heck is black spot disease???? I have heard it is a from of ICH, I have heard that it is a seperate protozoan parasite, and I have heard that it is a fungus. Anyone out there know the truth? how does one cure it? Also, is black spot specific only to tangs, and is it contagious?

Some background on the tank: it cycled for 9 weeks with damsels. The damsels were then removed and the tang was introduced. I had the water tested and the PH and salinity were good. Ammonia, Nitrite and Nitrate levels were all 0. I keep the tank at 76 degrees, and there are 4 turbo snails and 4 red hermit crabs on mop detail.

PD
 
Odd, as I was going to post about this on the FW forum. I have a book called "Handbook of Fish Diseases" by Dieter Untergasser (those Germans know their fish), and as far as I can tell, it's a form of trematode, and what you see is part of the life cycle. It says that it can't be cured. I've only seen in in freshwater fish, where apparently it's fairly common in wild fish. I could be wrong, but it sounds like what I've seen. I just don't know how it applies to SW.
 
Yup, it is a turbellarian worm. I have seen these on yellow tangs just as much as I've seen them on silver dollars in freshwater. However, I've never seen a fish die from it. In fact, the fish usually came in with them from the wholesaler and in two weeks were usually just fine. And the tanks at that LFS were not necessarily the most conducive for getting over diseases :confused:
 
Tangs are very prone to getting black spot if stressed, and die from it if not treated. It is readily treated, and prevented, by keeping tangs in happy sized tanks, with no stressors, and an appropriate variety of foods. What size tank do you have?
 
OrionGirl, can I jump in here?

I just got a new yellow tang too. He's the only fish in a 72-gallon bowfront. Water parameters are perfect. Yesterday (first day) he was happy, picking on rocks. But tonight he's acting a little stressed and does half-flashes sometimes. He has two teeny black spots on his right side.

Are you saying that if I keep the water nice and feed him well, his immune system will take over? At what point should I pull him out, put him in my quarantine tank, and begin agressive treatment (like low salinity, methylene blue, etc.)?? He's still eating like a pig, but he looks a little stressed.

Thanks.
 
Sick tang

Ok I have a 90 gallon reef and I have had my Yellow tang for over a month now. We just added a clown tang, and yesterday I noticed black spots only on my yellow tang. Now I think this is Black Ich. But how can I get rid of it? I do have several corals, and 4 fish. I don't want any of my other fish to get it. But I need to treat him asap. But I don't know what to do.
 
Paravortex... these little pests require a couple of PH adjusted 5 minute freshwater dips, three days apart. It would also be a good idea to quarantine any infected fish if possible until the problem improves. Make sure you dip the fish BEFORE moving them to QT. The problem with these worms is they can live for months without a tang host; so you need to remove the host fish for 90 days or so and let them starve. This is in contrast to marine ich cryptos which usually starve in about 3 weeks without a host. Not an expert on this problem, so seek other opinions.
 
I started a thread for black spot disease several months ago.
The thread is here-
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=436551&posted=1#post436551

My clown loaches had a real bad case of it for several months. Two of my clowns have died from black spot. Right now, most of my clowns are black spot free though.

IMO, pretty much everything I've read about black spot disease on the net and all the advice that I've gotten is off the mark.
IME, 1- Black Spot can kill your fish. 2- It can multiply quickly. 3- It can be cured.

There is some helpful info here-
http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/compldiagnodisease/a/aa041701.htm

in this article it states that this parasitic worm is a substrate dweller.

IME, Changing the substrate has helped stopped the spread of this disease in my tanks. IMO, medications cannot penetrate thick substrates (like sand) where this parasitic worm propagates.

Anyways, I wish there were more people with 1sthand knowledge of this disease that could help shead some light on this topic.
 
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