Known fish diseases and antidotes.

nayrgaijin · May 19, 2010

Well I have a fish with the 'black ick'.
Can someone better describe this to me? Cure it just like white ick?
Also if you have had experience with other diseases please post your experience

I would like to make this a sticky if we could get some great input!

jaytizzle · May 22, 2010

I'll have to do some homework, Ryan... I haven't had to deal with black ich myself and this is only the 2nd or 3rd time I've seen it come up IME. Hopefully I can find something.

rendos · May 24, 2010

Black ich is most commonly seen in yellow tangs (probably because the bright yellow color of the fish makes the black ich easy to see). I have treated this with a fresh water dip with almost 100% success every time. We get lots of yellow tangs at the store that come in with it from the wholesaler. After a few minutes in the fresh water, you can see the black spots on the bottom of the white bucket as they have released from the fish.

stunreefer · May 24, 2010

+1 to rendos.

You can also treat with hyposalinity and copper, but I always hit them with a FWD prior to anything else to immediately remove some of the infestation (which in turn reduces stress).

ReeferRob · May 24, 2010

stunreefer said:
+1 to rendos.

You can also treat with hyposalinity and copper, but I always hit them with a FWD prior to anything else to immediately remove some of the infestation (which in turn reduces stress).

Refresh my memory, FWD is in RO/DI with balance temp and pH for 5 minutes or sooner if fish is showing signs of stress, correct??

stunreefer · May 24, 2010

Correct.

I temp. match, and airate the water for at least an hour with an airstone prior to the dip. I don't bother matching pH, afterall, you're trying to "shock" the parasites off of the fish, and you're putting the fish into freshwater. While talking with Jay Hemdal (fish disease/treatment expert) he even mentioned he just uses "pretty closely" temp matched tap water.