Black Specks/spots On Severum

[minxfishy]

Over the past few days, what appear to be black specks/spots have started appearing on my 7" Red Spot Severum. Not something Ive come across before, any idea? Some appear to be on the skin, others seem to be hanging off the skin, like on the mucus coat (dont know how else to explain it). Also, none on the fins, just the main body.

Tank size: 400L, full mature, 15 months, running two mature eheim filters.
Water stats: 0 Ammonia, 0 NitrIte, ph 7.4, NitrAte 20-30. Stable since set up, so not ammonia burns.
No other fish in tank affected, full stock in signature (Rio 400).

Few weeks ago, had an outbreak of ich, this cleared up, lost a couple of fish, since then all seemed normal until these black spots appeared on the Severum.

Any ideas what it is and how to treat please?

 

[Davo86]

hi Minx there is a disease called "Black spot", I don't really know much about it though, so maybe worth a google,

Edit:Black Spot
Apparently if it is this it is easily treated with Formalin, (one of the main ingredients in Protozin)

 

[minxfishy]

Thanks Davo, Ive had a google of black spot disease, doesnt say much about raising or lowering temperature, the worrying thing I found was that its hard to eradicate it without removing all the fish for a few months, which I cant do, will treat with protozin and see how it goes. Any idea how long I need to treat for? It says the parasite falls off around 5-6 days, but can survive without a host for months!

 

[Davo86]

no idea tbh, but as a precaution I'd probably treat up until 7 days after the black spots have gone,

Been reading a bit about this and it seems that unlike most other parasites this one lives in the gravel (not the water) until the time comes when it is mature enough to attack the fish. Therefore it would make sense that if you use Formalin to remove the parasites from the fish, and remove the gravel then you should really be removing the problem ???

 

[minxfishy]

Well I will vac daily to help remove some of them from the sand, but yeah, they can survive on detrius in the substrate for months without a host fish. So yeah you could completely remove all the sand/gravel in a hope of removing them all I suppose, which frankly will be a pain in the butt, so will vac daily for a couple of weeks and hope that clears it.

 

[Gazoo]

Over the past few days, what appear to be black specks/spots have started appearing on my 7" Red Spot Severum. Not something Ive come across before, any idea? Some appear to be on the skin, others seem to be hanging off the skin, like on the mucus coat (dont know how else to explain it). Also, none on the fins, just the main body.

Tank size: 400L, full mature, 15 months, running two mature eheim filters.
Water stats: 0 Ammonia, 0 NitrIte, ph 7.4, NitrAte 20-30. Stable since set up, so not ammonia burns.
No other fish in tank affected, full stock in signature (Rio 400).

Few weeks ago, had an outbreak of ich, this cleared up, lost a couple of fish, since then all seemed normal until these black spots appeared on the Severum.

Any ideas what it is and how to treat please?

I was about to start a new thread but it seems as if you and I are dealing with the same thing. I recently added 6 rummy noses and within a few days they developed ich. Then when I was taking a closer look at them, I noticed one of the rummy noses had one black spot on the side of its body that resembled a poppy seed. Is that what it looks like on your severum minxfishy?

Thanks for the link Davo86. It contained some good info.

 

[Davo86]

Has there been any improvement Minx?

 

[minxfishy]

Yep, the spots/specks are all gone, still medicating the tank to try and kill off any remaining that will hatch, but for how long for Im still unsure.