Black Spots

[RicePaddy]

I noticed about a week ago that my Yellow Tang had some black spots on his body. At about the same time I had purchased some cleaner shrimp. Since then I have only seen one spot on the yellow tang. However, I now see about three spots on my Clowns. Can anyone point me in the right direction for a cure?

Will

[midgetwaiter]

Does it look like this?

http://www.fishbase.org/Diseases/DispicSummary.cfm?pic=BlksptD1.jpg&notcom=

If so you are in for a bit of fun. This is usually refered to as Black Ich and is a sign of parasitic worms being present. It's pretty easy to knock the worms off the fish using fw dips, formalin or keeping them in hyposlinity QT tank for a bit.

Getting them out of your display is going to be a bugger though. If you don't have any corals I'd move the shrimp out and do a week or two hyposalinity in the display, that should get them.

Here's a pretty good synopsis for you:

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

[RicePaddy]

Exactly, looks like I have a long road ahead of me to get rid of this Black Dot problem. And I just bought an anemone.

Will

[goby1]

Do you think the cleaner shrimp brought in the Black Dot?

[RicePaddy]

No, I am positive it was the Yellow Tang. When I bought him he was a little beat up from his tank mates. And the place where I got him from is suppose to quaranteen the fish before selling. I notice a couple of sault like black spots on him when I put him in my tank. Then they came off and now I see them on my clown fish.

I am never, ever going to buy anything else and just place it in my tank. From what I am reading this Black Spot can last in your tank for months. How big of a quaranteen tank will I need for a yellow tang, 2 clowns and a damsel. And I imagine I will also have to QT my cleaner shrimp.

Will

[RicePaddy]

I have been told that if I use a vitemin supplement to strenghten the immune system of my fish. And then buy a Cleaner Wrasse that this would be a natural way to control the Black Spot. However when reading about the Cleaner Wrasse it said that once the paracites are gone it could starve to death. I do not want to bring a new fish friend home only to know he my die.

Just wanted to hear some opinions.

[howdy20012002]

I have had one of my cleaner wrasse for just under a year now
He eats pretty much whatever I feed the tank.
Certainly is not starving to death
I think it depends on whether or not it starts eating things besides parasites.
My experience has been positive so far with the 3 I have.
Hope this helps
Neal

[christyf5]

A neon goby is another option. They're great little cleaners and after the disease is gone they readily acclimate to whatever you feed them as well as grazing whatever else they can find. They're great little fish, very personable. Both the neon (blue) and sharknose (yellow) will clean fish, but the blue ones are definitely more persistent IMO.

[RicePaddy]

Excellent suggestion. I like the look of the neon goby much better. And I had also planned on putting them in my tank eventually. I imagine a pair would be better then just one.

Are neon goby's like clowns and change sexes? I would like to get a male and female.

Will

[christyf5]

I'm not really sure, but if you don't have a large tank one will eventually dominate and chase the other one ALL DAY and I don't think it was foreplay :wink: I had one sharknose and one neon in a 90 gallon tank and the sharknose chased the neon whenever he could see it. Eventually the neon ended up in the sump and I fished him out and put him in my nano tank. I wouldn't recommend 2 neons in anything less than a 75. If you've seen samw's video of his neons fighting its really rather gory how aggressive they can get towards each other.

[Redrover]

Cleaner Wrasse is the way to go...I have one and it looks after my
4 Tangs...they also feed on Seaweed...food with Kent Garlic { 2 drops }

[RicePaddy]

I have decided to go the vitamin route and it seems to be working. All the fish seem to be using the cleaner station that Jacque and Philp have set up. I hope they dont have babies becuase that may really screw up my 6 year old. Its bad enough he named the clowns Marlin and Nemo. Maybe Marlin will change into Marlena. Is there such a thing as a Plastic Surgeon Fish or a sexy change shrimp?

Thanks for all the tips.

Will

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Hah!