Black ich??

**Bigge3415** · 04-24-2012, 11:50 PM

I just noticed that a few of my cichlids have some black spots under their mouth on their belly. My substrate is a mix filter sand and crushed coral. Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate always under 40. I do a 60% wc weekly. Tank is nearly a year old cichlids been in there for over 6 months. Haven't had any issues since I started with the cichlids. The spots are not raised they are just black spots. I do not see any fish flashing, all are eating well, ect...

**Cliff** · 04-24-2012, 11:54 PM

Likely some type of parasite I would think.

Can you remove him to a QT tank for treatment once you confirm what he has ?

**Bigge3415** · 04-25-2012, 12:05 AM

It is more than one fish. And my qt tank is currently a grow out tank for demasoni and yellow lab fry.

**escamosa** · 04-25-2012, 12:54 AM

Did you happen to notice, when you bought them, if the cichlids were in a tank with snails? There is a disease called Black Spot, which is usually spread around by snails. It's a parasite that grows inside the liver of snails. Once the parasite leaves the snail, it finds a fish to live on for a while, and will be hoping the fish is eaten by a bird or another animal to continue to reproduce inside of them. It's not usually to much of a problem in aquariums though, because the parasite can't be eaten by anything to keep it going. Any snails in the aquarium should be removed though. It does give the fish a few of the same symptoms as ich, like scratching and holding thier fins in close to thier bodies. So maybe that's something to keep an eye on. It's not usually deadly to fish, but anything can happen. As far as I know, you just have to get rid of any snails in your tank to stop it, if it is in fact black spot.

**Bigge3415** · 04-25-2012, 12:57 AM

No snails in tank. Fish have been in my tank for over 6 months. Not sure of the life cycle of those parasites.

**escamosa** · 04-25-2012, 01:15 AM

Apparently, the life cycle of black spot is very short in aquariums, if there is no snails to keep producing the parasite, and because there's no animals to eat the fish to start the cycle all over again. I'm not sure of the exact length of the life cycle. The only other thing I can think of is the other black spot disease, which is also called Tang disease. It's caused by a worm that lives in the substrate, but I'm pretty sure that's more common, or specifically within saltwater species.