African Cichlids Off the Subject, Sorry

[andy51632]

Sorry to ask this here but i cant get some sort of parasite cured in my 90 african cichlid tank. They had it for 2 months now but are still very dosal and always hungry. They have small black spots on them. My biggest cichlid has the most of them. They are on his belly and both sides I would say probally 20 of them, he is 6" long and still dominates the tank. Any suggestions on treatment? I was thinking of trying clout on them. Think that would work. Ph 8.2/ kh 18/ gh 18/ nh 0/ nitrites 0/ nitrates 25ppm.

 

[sepulatian]

Do you have any snails or other inverts in this tank? Plecos or other algae eaters? I would use coppersafe or another copper treatment, but not if you have the above mentioned items. I like coppersafe because it will not harm your plecos if you have them, but it is not safe with snails. It is a low dose of copper treatment. I am not 100% positive, but pretty certain that cichlids do not get "black ich". Do you have a picture of the spots? Are you certain it is not them just changing color as they mature?

 

[andy51632]

No, they pretty much cleared out all the snails. I do have some scaleless fish in the same tank(clown loaches)that i could remove to another tank. Also have 4 bushy nose plecos/ I tried to get a picture but the black spots would not show up. Also another thing that most of the fish are doing is itching themselfs on rocks and slate. I am 100% sure it is not there color changing it looks like little coffee grounds are stuck to them. Salt is recommended for a african cichlid tank. I put 1tsp per (not marine)5 gallons of aquarium salt. I research black ich and found only saltwater fish effected. I have some copper medications and copper test kit coming. Will this work for freshwater also?

 

[sepulatian]

If you are going to treat with copper do it in a seperate container. Copper will be absorbed by your substrate, filter, silicone etc. and make it unsafe for your scaleless fish. You have the copper on order? I am going to try to do a little more research about black spots on cichlids and get back to you on this. I don't want to tell you to treat with something that isn't going to work.

 

[andy51632]

Yes I will have it on Wednesday. I have already tried some lighter medications safe for scaleless fish. General Cure(aquarium pharm.). I don't know about the copper, I need to find another tank to treat them in if I use that. All I have is 10 gal tanks except for the 29 gallon that is brand new and going to be my saltwater QT tank. I have some medication that is food based and effective against parasites. It takes 4 weeks of feeding to kill the parasite. Also my plecos, syn. cats, striped raphaels, and clown loaches display no sign of these black dots. All these fish are bottom scavengers. I am not for sure if the plecos, or syn cats are scaleless but I know the raphaels and clown loaches are.

 

[andy51632]

Is there some parasite that has to have scales to live on?

 

[lion_crazz]

Sounds like your fish have black spot disease, a disease very common in wild caught fish, a disease caused by the larvae of parasitic digenetic flukes, Cercaria and Metacercaria.
It is not treatable but it is not contagious either since it has a fairly complex lifecycle that includes snails and birds.
The best way to get rid of the problem is to improve water quality, do more water changes to get levels down to as close to 0, and to improve their water quality.
What are the water levels of this tank?

 

[xdave]

Originally Posted by andy51632
Is there some parasite that has to have scales to live on?
No, but you can't use copper on fish that don't.

 

[beth]

Using copper in the display tank is ALWAYS a bad idea, since it devastate the biofilter to the point of no return, and will be a permanent factor in the aquaria (it can not be removed).
I can't help you on this issue. Are there any good FW forums that you participate in?