black dots on my yellow tang

[hooked]

Hello all,

I see black dots all over my yellow tang. Is he going to be ok? He is eating great and looks healthy but has spot all over. Can anybody offer any suggestions?

thanks Jim

[CAT]

Sounds like it could be Black spot. This is a flatworm parasite that commonly attacks tangs. It can be treated with a fresh water dip for a few minutes. Unfortunately if the fish is in your tank, the parasite is like ich -the tank may have the larval stage still floating around in it.

Try doing a search and see if the symptoms match what you have. Paravortex is what it's called.

Good luck

[zaireguy]

I seen somewhere there is black ich.It was a while back when I first thought about getting into the hobbey.Not sure someone with more exper will jump in I am sure and help you out

Ron

[hooked]

think my other fish will get it.

[sally]

Your other fish may not get it. I would hold off on doing anything radical (fresh water dip) and see if it goes away on its own. IMO removing a fish and giving it a freshwater dip really stresses out the fish. Try to feed some food soaked in garlic and keep an eye on it. It may go away on it's own. Good luck.

[digital_dragon]

If it is black spot you want to do a freshwater dip. From the research that I have done if you don't the flatworms eggs on your fish will burst and contaminate the whole tank you will never get rid of them. Use RO/DI water for your fresh water dip and make sure the fresh water is the same temp as your tank. Dip him for 5 to 10 minutes and monitor your fish the whole time. If he starts to breath heavy and starts acting like he is going belly up pull him out and return him to the tank. I had the same crap and dip my Tang and he is doing great. Best of all the black spots are gone and he is doing fine. A few articles that I read said that many wholesalers fresh water dip their Tangs upon capture to kill this type of parasite. When you dip the fish in fresh RO/DI water the lack of salinity causes the flatworms attached to your fish to burst and die. Search the web and reef boards for this parasite Paravortex (aka Black Spot Disease of Yellow Tangs). You may stress the fish out a little but you are not releasing more parasites in your closed system for them to attach to any future Tangs you may add to your tank. Good luck.

Earl

[ShirleyM]

Hi Jim,

I found two references, which might be helpful:

Perhaps the most common dip used in marine fish husbandry is the freshwater dip. Freshwater dips may serve as either preventatives or treatments for parasitic infections. Of the parasites described above, Paravortex and Cryptocaryon are highly susceptible to freshwater. A series of freshwater dips alone are often adequate to treat even advanced Paravortex infestations. Cryptocaryon is not as easily treated but immersing a fish with visible white spots (they cysts of the parasite) in freshwater usually causes the cysts to burst and releases the tomites into the freshwater. When Cryptocaryon is clearly present, following the freshwater dip with copper treatment in a quarantine tank (or at least one of the dips described below) is advised to kill any remaining parasites. In the case of either Paravortex or Cryptocaryon, returning the treated fish to an infested tank is generally futile and will result in the rapid re-infestation of the now-weakened fish.

Also, a reference to "Black Ich":

The biological agents that should be kept from a display tank are those that can cause disease. The most common culprits are: 1) common parasites such as ick (Cryptocaryon irritans), marine velvet (Amyloodinium ocellatum), clownfish disease (Brooklynella hostilis), and several varieties of worms that often infect Angelfish and Tangs (such as Paravortex, often diagnosed as black ick); 2) infectious bacteria; 3) infectious viruses like Lymphocystis; and 4) true fungus (which is rare in marine fish but sometimes misdiagnosed when the true ailment is a bacterial of viral infection).

Paravortex and Freshwater Dips

From another site:

Worms

Phylum Platyhelminthes; flatworms, flukes, tapeworms.

Turbellarians, a group in the flatworm Phylum Platyhelminthes are mostly "free-living" non-parasitic species. One notable exception is Paravortex, the causative agent of "black spot disease", notably of yellow tangs. This is easily eliminated via freshwater dipping, though other authors suggest formalin baths and organophosphate remedies.

Marine Aquarium Fish Parasitic Diseases

Hth,
Shirley

[ShirleyM]

Jim, here's another site, and it has photos.

Disease:

Yellow tangs are readily susceptible to the common protozoan infections of marine fishes, and happily easily treated by common methods. Additionally, they are susceptible to a peculiar flatworm infestation; so-called black dot disease.

My graduate school roommate Mike Kent worked out the life-cycle of this platyhelminth, Paravortex for his Master's Thesis. Other authors list the use of organo-phosphate containing medications to rid yellow tangs and their system of this turbellarian, but a simple freshwater dip, sans copper or anything else, wipes them out without having to put anything in your main system. After this knowledge became common and a routine freshwater dip procedure was adopted by wholesalers, we had a Dickens of a time getting more Paravortex. If your system will accommodate a cleaner goby, shrimp, by all means include one.

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/YellowTang.htm

If it were me, I'd do a f/w dip and if they come back I'd do another. They are flatworms, so they are attached externally and will drop off.

~Shirley

[zaireguy]

Great info!! I thought black ich sounded right I just didnt`t want to give any false info me is still a newbie
Ron

[hooked]

Thanks for all the great info all. He is looking so healthy and eating great. I may give it till the weekend and see what is condition shows and go from there.

Thanks again

[ShirleyM]

OK, but I'm a little worried, and I'm no expert, but if it were me, I'd dip him in some freshwater. I've done it with a Yellow Tang, a Batfish, and Clarkii Clowns with no damage to the fish.

Flatworms suck the blood or whatever out of the fish...sort of like leeches at the swimmin' hole...

Good luck, and glad to be able to help you find info.

Shirley

[MDT]

I had this happen to my little yellow tang who can swim at least 150 mph. Gave up on pulling him out of my rocks. I bought two skunk cleaner shrimp , and they picked him clean over a few days. This probably would not save a fish from the white ich since that parasite really destroys the gill tissue (cleaners probably could not remove the white worms from gills).

[MDT]

Oh yeah, two cleaner shrimp will mate and each will produce eggs which lead to zooplankton for a reef. Don't worry about male and female since any two will do.
They are big eaters so I feed them formula 1 with the fish. Mine eat Stomatella snails (cap snails) if they come into the main tank from the refug, but they can't eat snails with a complete shell.