Black dots on yellow tang!

[wrassecal]

My yellow tang looks like it has been sprinkled with pepper. Tiny black raised dots. Did a search - got confused - here I am. Tang is acting normal. Is this a parasite? We had a 2 day power outage from a storm. I ran extension cords to a neighbors so all pumps and ph's have been running but no lights for 2 days. I mention just in case it could have anything to do with it. Other fish seem fine but I don't know if I would notice it on the naso. I didn't notice it on the tang til it was at a certain angle, but defiantely sprinkled from head to body with black salt like dots..what do I do?I've had the naso for a month and the yellow for about 6 months. I had ich and the only fish that made through hypo were sixline wrasse, the yellow tang and coral beauty. Naso was q'd in seperate tank 3 weeks and added to main tank approx 2 weeks ago. The other 3 have been back in main tank for about 3 weeks. In case you need this for background info.

 

[lobstergrabber]

I am not that familiar with it but the lady at the LFS was talking about something she called black ich. She said in her experience it only seemed to affect yellow fish. I know this is not much help but maybe if you don't get any other suggestions it could lead you in the right direction.
Rich

 

[beth]

It does sound like black ich. However, it does not just effect yellow fish. You can see black ich better on yellow fish because of their light color.
The fish will need to be treated with formalin bathes. See the link in the FAQ section to TerryB's article of formalin treatment.

 

[wrassecal]

Thanks Beth

 

[wrassecal]

Ok, I read it. That sounds kind of scary. If you don't do it exactly right in exactly the right conditions sounds like you could kill your fish and hurt yourself in the process. Does this have to be done right away or can you wait a few days to see if the fish can fight it off? Any articles on "black ich"? Is it like ich in that if my yellow has it, my others do to? How does this parasite enter the tank? Could it have been brought in on a coral/rock I bought? I q'd the naso 3 weeks before introducing it. It was in a q tank while the others were in hypo in a h tank.

 

[beth]

It's not that scary. I'll have to read over that article again !
Simply use a deadicated bucket. Take water from your main tank and place in bucket--aerate the water with an airstone [very important]. Use formalin, at 20 drops per gal of water, so be sure to measure how much water you are using. Place the infected fish in the treatment bath for 45 mins, every other day, for 3-5 days.
All fish should be treated.

 

[jlem]

I treated my fish in the formalin dip a couple weeks ago. It was extremely easy. I took a 1 gallon water jug that I bought at the grocery store. I cut off the top so the fish could easlily fit in. filled with water from my quarantine tank and ran an airstone. Because the jug held less than 1 gallon since I cut off the top I used 19 drops of formaldahide. 40 mil of formaldahide cost me a buck from the local

[hr]
( I had to explaine why I wanted it). The fish that where almost dead from brooklynella showed no worse signs of stress once inside the bath and within hours of the 40 minute treatment looked 100% better. I did three dips and placed the fish into the main display after 10 more days of quarantine.

 

[wrassecal]

Formalin is carcinogenic and irritating to the skin, so gloves should be used when administrating treatment. Formalin must be stored in a tightly sealed container and used only in a well-ventilated area to avoid breathing the vapors or irritating the eyes. It should be stored in the dark above 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Methanol is added to formaldehyde to prevent the formation of paraformaldehyde in storage, and formalin should not be used if this white precipitate is evident. Paraformaldehyde is highly toxic to fish and can kill them on contact. It is best to strongly aerate the formalin for several hours prior to using it in a dip. This will remove as much of the methanol as possible, because the methanol is also toxic to fish.
That's the part that spooked me a little. If I do this in the 10 gal tank then after I'm finished with the dips can I rinse it out and will it be Ok for a q tank later on?
Can I put them back in the display after each dip?
What is the official name of "black ich"?
Also how the heck did these parasites get into the tank?
Do they "cycle" through 3 stages like the white stuff?

 

[bang guy]

I always thought Black Ick was a type of Scale Fluke. If so they shouldn't be deadly unless the fish gets overwhelmed with them. This is one of the few parasites that Cleaner Shrimp actually have a chance at removing.

 

[wrassecal]

Thanks Guy, the tang is looking a lot better just a few left on it. We have 2 cleaners and one fire shrimp cleaner that cleans it quite often. I'm still wondering how to research this particular "parasite" and how it got introduced into the tank, life cycle etc. So if anyone has that info, please post for me. Thanks.

 

[wrassecal]

Well, it's all cleared up on it's own and we've had a tragedy occur with close friends so I don't have the time to do the dips anyway right now. I'd still be interested to know exactly what it is and how to prevent it.