Black Spot

[nefandus]

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Hello,
My clown has got black spots, mainly on her belly, but also a couple in here fins and visible on the white lines on her side. On her belly it's quite a patch, but the ones on her side are just spec's.

The tank is a couple of months old, salt , ammo ,nitrate, nitrite, ph , look good.

Stock and rock has come from several locations so parasite if that is what they are could have come in from anywhere.

My local shop advised eSHa OODINEX as a miracle cure, invert safe, well i have dosed the tank for 3 days all the inhabitants seem fine but the spots seem to be getting worse not better, Last dose was yesterday.

So whats the best course of action??

There are 2 scooter blenny's and a watchman gobby also in the tank but at present they seem unaffected.

Thanks for your help,

Paul.

[moorish]

its sounds similar to whitespot,a lot of tangs get this & can be quite difficult to get rid of.years ago some of my yellow tangs came out in this but providing they are feeding ok i would leave it to go away on its own.providing you can catch them & treat them in a quarrentine tank with copper that would be better.a lot of these so called treatments on offer which are supposed not to harm invertabraes are no good what so ever,so just keep an eye on them.the only other thing i can sugest is to drop your sg down to about 1.014 this seems to stop the parasite from reproducing giving the fish time to recover.keep this down for about 2 weeks then gradually raise it back slowly over the next 7 days.derek

[Timo]

Don't dose any meds! Clowns usually develop black spots when they have been hosting in corals etc non true anemones. Has it been hosting in anything at all that's not a true nem?

This is usually harmless and will actually go away if they stop hosting in the suspect coral. The condition is called Hyper-Melaninization.

[nefandus]

This sounds about right, he doesn't have a nem and is hosting where ever he can, so hopefully this is the problem. I might look at getting him a new home. I didnt originally get one as they can walk about over other delicate corals.

I havent seen any marks on the other fish so i hope your right.

Thankyou both for the info ,

Cheers Paul.:)

[Chris, Reef Ranch]

Black sot is actually Terbinarians which are little flat worms if my memory serves me right. Its easily cured with the praziquantel cure from TMC. However, quite often its presence is due to pronlongued stress. Fish like Yellow Tang carry it. If the fish's fins are all clamped up and they are wiggling looking sorry for themselves then it could be clown syndrome also. Its a syndrome due to importation. If they are wild fish then they are most susceptible. Feed New Era immuno stimulants and be kind to them. Don't add loads of chemicals or stress them more unless it seems absolutelly necessary.

[Macca]

you could support our paying sponsors and probably find their products are far better value for money that a fish importers. for example ParaGuard from seachem.

A company who have science minded people working in laboratorys who at the end of the day sell what they make.

[Chris, Reef Ranch]

Sorry James,

Forgot the politics. See Praziquantel was not licenced for fish for ages and I've never used propritary products. Was only aware of this from this forum. However, I will indeed take note that I could upset a few people by suggesting things like a particular brand of immuno stimulant or carbon. The main thing is that carbons have to be of sufficient quality and there are only a few that I have worked with for that reason. I will be careful in furture to be a little less specific.