yellow tang

[Montana]

can someone help me with diagnosing some little black spots on my tang. I noticed them the day i brought it home on last sunday and they dont seem to go away or get worse. but he is scratching somewhat. If it is ich i have never seen it black.?

[Quagmire]

Yes there is a black type of Ich cause by Paravortex worm.Ive never had to deal with it,but I understand FW dip and formalin treatment will work.I hope someone else here has delt with it and helps out.If not try a google search for Black Ich or Black spot.

[bulletsworld]

Sounds to me like ya got yourself "Black Ich" which is caused by turbellaria, a type of flatworm. While the organism itself is nothing like the parasite that causes marine "Ich", the life cycles are similar. The turbellaria feed on the host for around 6 days and then drop off move into the substrate. They then brood for 3 or 4 days where they can produce up to 160 juveniles. After the 2 to 4 days, the adults body ruptures and the juveniles released. The juveniles are infective and seek out fish to infect.As the life cycle is around 10 days, you need to wait longer that 2 weeks for them to die off in the main tank and a good idea to use quarantine. The infected fish will indeed do flashing, which is scratch against rock when infected.

In bad outbreaks of this, treatment for fish infected is with a formalin bath. Although I dont recommend this treatment.

I had a yellow tang in past that had this. I treated it with a series of freshwater dips with great results. You will be able to see the black spots start to drop off slowly in the FW dip. I also did more water changes to improve water quality. Then I never had the problem again.


Here is also a few links with more info if your interested,

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

http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/blackich.html


Hope this helps,



Lee

[Montana]

Thanks for the tip on the fresh water dip, I did it that night and the spots went away right away.