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Re: Black Spot Disease: Do Not Treat!
Posted By: Trebor In Response To: Black Spot Disease (Mickie)
Date: Monday, 17 January 2000, at 5:26 a.m.
According to Dr. Paul Loiselle of The Cichlid Aquarium, a good aquarium reference book that I have, the black spots are cysts of a parasitic trematode worm in a passive stage(i.e. not really very harmful to the fish, the fish is just a carrier). He says the parasites need both snails AND birds (I think the birds catch the fish, then later poop onto the water) to continue its lifecycle, so it cannot last forever. Fish that are affected are fish that were raised or kept in ponds outdoors (I read in some link that they catch very tiny clowns in a trap and raise them in ponds to a more profitable size), or some wild-caught fish. Loiselle states that it is pointless and could be harmful to try to get rid of them with medicine.
If that is what you have, I hope that is helpful. It is never a good idea to just treat fish with medicine without knowing for sure what they have, anyway.
You could try raising the temperature over 80 F, which would speed up the lifecycle of the parasites, and see what happens. Also good for minor ick problems. To be honest, I don't know why people make such a big deal about ick because if ick really is a problem with a fish, that means the fish is very stressed out or sick from something else, which is the initial problem!
As for bloodworms, I don't know, but I think whatever is used to raise them is sort of a "disgusting filth" by human standards, and not very "clean", but how would parasites survive the freezing? Does anybody know what they use to feed them?
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