Black Spot - Help!

[drewie]

i recently picked up a parrot, and right after i got him home i noticed he has a case of black spot disease, i know never take home a sick fish, but what do i do to cure this? i read its not contageous to other chiclids only other parrots


please help..my water is perfect, ive been doing water changes to keep it clean because i read perfect water usually cures it, but its not helping. any thing else i can do?

[Gayle]

Um yeah how do you mean black spot???? There are a few different kinds. Can you please give more details?

[Dave66]

I quote myself:

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Not uncommon on fish is Trichodina, another sub-microscopic protist. Unlike most diseases, Trichodina isn't by nature a parasite. It merely uses a fish for locomotion, and doesn't feed on the fish at all.

A circular creature, Trichodina attaches to the fish with a sucking disk (interlocking "teeth" forming the sucker) on it's ventral side. There is stays, using chloroplasts to feed itself. It's only poor water quality and sub-standard conditions that overwhelms the fish's control of it, can Trichodina become dangerous. The population explodes, and the millions of sucking disks irritate the fish, and they flash like mad attempting to dislodge them. The disks can cause tissue damage, and reddening can be in some areas. The damage the disks can do can open the fish to all sorts of infections.

Cures are few, but can be can be effective

What I've used is a an hour-long bath with tank water dosed with Potassium Permanganate.

A container equipped with a rapidly bubbling air stone is used, the affected fish or fishes are added, and the recommended dose of Potassium Permanganate is added. Usually only one treatment is required, but if by chance it isn't, it is repeated the next day.

After treatment, the fish are quarantined for two weeks, and a commercial slime coat restorer is used. Water quality, both in the quarantine and the main tank, must be top-shelf to avoid a repeat of the episode. Also, the damage the Trichodina can do can open the fish to other bacterial infections, so keep a close eye on the fish in quarantine and take steps if necessary with an antibiotic medication. Of course, this should only be done in an isolated container to avoid killing beneficial bacteria in your sponge filter.

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Other treatments can be salt, but it's difficult to know how much salt is needed to kill Trichodina, and salt treatment is dangerous to some types of fish.

Baths in tank water with Malachite Green and formalin* added can work, and chloramine-T dosages is reported to be effective. In the latter two methods a rapidly bubbling airstone is mandated to keep Oxygen high for the fish, and of course the treatment water should be the same temperature, pH and hardness of the tank the fish comes from.
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From my disease primer stickied at the top of the disease forum. The disease usually infects temperate species, like koi, but tropical fish can contract it if they are pond bred, like parrots are. Because of the chloroplasts, the protists turn black, as you see.

Dave

[drewie]

i may just bring it back to the pet store, they've always been pretty good to me. i just dont want it to die or put any of the other fish at risk.

[drewie]

sort of looks like this..

http://www.geocities.com/parrotcichlid/images/parrot/black_spot_1.jpg

[thatcichlidguy]

And then again it could just be showing black spots which isn't uncommon for them . It may or may not be followed by a channge in color or pattern. Not saying that's what it is but they do that.

[drewie]

well it has gotten worse..at first it was a little now theres little pin size dots all over it. all the other fish are fine.

[Gayle]

That could be caused by the healing of an wound, typically from ammonia burn. But if it is getting worse, and a bunch of spots like you say then I would be more apt to go with what Dave said.

[thatcichlidguy]

OK now that I see that pic, It's a normal color change . It may fade or it may stay like that. These guys are subject to changing colors as they age (like flowerhorns) so what he looks like today , will be different in a month or a year.

[drewie]

these are the two best pictures i could get.

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/102/l_4dd5ed5b9860480f84eb96356aea7f5d.jpg
http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/70/l_6174e0d572d946859ebc0c118949e693.jpg

[thatcichlidguy]

I wouldn't worry right now. Those spots could be from anything and since he's brand new it's very likely that the spots your seeing are minor injuries from being netted. Particularly if he wasn't very keen on the idea and put up a bit of a fight about it. They probably look worse than they are since he's so light colored. Right now I'd just let him be and give him time to settle in and he should heal up fine on his own . If it persists for a long period and or gets worse then it will be time to act and since he shows no other symptoms there isn't much sence in jumping the gun.

As I mentioned earlier, black spots on Blood Parrots are normal. They do not all get them , but many do and not from diesese . It's just the way they are.

[drewie]

ok thanks guys! i was just worried, i know hes new but ive taken alot of liking twords him...hes extremely friendly already and ive only had him for about a week. i just have never lost a fish yet, i dont want to start with a new one.