Black ich im assuming....

[ItzOnlySmellz]

Hi, just looking for some opinions as I believe my foxface has black ich again.
My blue tang had it first( assuming is black ich). So treated tank with Blue Planet Fluke and Tapeworm. Basically it's praziquantel. 2 treatments a week apart + water changes.
Before the second treatment my foxface showed the same spots. Continued with the process and they settled but still a few, assumed scaring as seen mentioned in forums, but today my foxface spots seems worse. Blue tang cleared up fine but has white spots on eyes atm, assume a separate issue, sleeps in a rock so thought damage/start of popeye, but putting it all here.
Before treating again, just looking for some advice as am still technically new.
Any help much appreciated!!


Parameters in photos, 9 month old tank, whites high only for photos, from Australia so limited to available products, wife gonna kill me if i spend any more on my 'third child'

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi, just looking for some opinions as I believe my foxface has black ich again.
My blue tang had it first( assuming is black ich). So treated tank with Blue Planet Fluke and Tapeworm. Basically it's praziquantel. 2 treatments a week apart + water changes.
Before the second treatment my foxface showed the same spots. Continued with the process and they settled but still a few, assumed scaring as seen mentioned in forums, but today my foxface spots seems worse. Blue tang cleared up fine but has white spots on eyes atm, assume a separate issue, sleeps in a rock so thought damage/start of popeye, but putting it all here.
Before treating again, just looking for some advice as am still technically new.
Any help much appreciated!!


Parameters in photos, 9 month old tank, whites high only for photos, from Australia so limited to available products, wife gonna kill me if i spend any more on my 'third child'

The Blue Planet product likely contains praziquantel. That doesn’t work well on black ich. That drug only works on flukes and tapeworms and black ich is caused by a turbellarian worm.

Luckily, black ich often goes away on its own. To treat it, you would need to do freshwater dips. Formalin works better, but that isn’t really safe to use in homes.

 

[ItzOnlySmellz]

Thanks Jay. Googling black ich and humblefish suggests prazipro ( praziquantel based med) hence me using it. Didn't want to dip and stress but will give a go tomorrow.
Fingers crossed

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks Jay. Googling black ich and humblefish suggests prazipro ( praziquantel based med) hence me using it. Didn't want to dip and stress but will give a go tomorrow.
Fingers crossed

Yeah - you’ll find that most home aquarium sites say to use prazi, but they are just repeating the same info.
Prazi doesn’t kill worms, it just temporarily causes them to relax and fall off of the fish. These turbellarian worms are too deeply seated for it to work well. Dylox is how these are treated in public aquariums, but that is even more dangerous to humans than formalin is.

 

[ItzOnlySmellz]

Yeah - you’ll find that most home aquarium sites say to use prazi, but they are just repeating the same info.
Prazi doesn’t kill worms, it just temporarily causes them to relax and fall off of the fish. These turbellarian worms are too deeply seated for it to work well. Dylox is how these are treated in public aquariums, but that is even more dangerous to humans than formalin is.

Yea ok I wont try that then.
Dips are only temporary so they say as there are different life stages of the ich... so just keep dipping until gone?
More than happy to if thats what it takes and it works.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yea ok I wont try that then.
Dips are only temporary so they say as there are different life stages of the ich... so just keep dipping until gone?
More than happy to if thats what it takes and it works.

Dipping when you see spots will eventually cause it to go away (it sometimes goes away on its own without dips). Just be careful not to damage the fish trying to catch it for a dip - people often do that because they don’t have much experience at capturing fish, and that isn’t something that can be taught.

 

[ItzOnlySmellz]

Dipping when you see spots will eventually cause it to go away (it sometimes goes away on its own without dips). Just be careful not to damage the fish trying to catch it for a dip - people often do that because they don’t have much experience at capturing fish, and that isn’t something that can be taught.

Thanks Jay. Much appreciated!

 

[MnFish1]

Yea ok I wont try that then.
Dips are only temporary so they say as there are different life stages of the ich... so just keep dipping until gone?
More than happy to if thats what it takes and it works.

I would follow the advice - let it be - if it is black ich is will go away - but - adding a bunch of chemicals to your (ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL TANK) no - I would not do it

 

[ItzOnlySmellz]

So managed to catch and dip. Was a traumatic experience for us both. Still seems to be spotty a few days later but still eating and acting normal

 

[Jay Hemdal]

So managed to catch and dip. Was a traumatic experience for us both. Still seems to be spotty a few days later but still eating and acting normal

The turbellarian worms that cause this are deeply seated, so the spots don't fall off after a dip. The hope is that the dips will kill the worms in-situ and then they will decompose and be assimilated by the fish's body after some time. Trouble is, healing tissue in fish is also dark, so it's tough to tell. Watch for spots in NEW locations (use a reference photo) - that will tell you that the dip didn't work.

 

[ItzOnlySmellz]

The turbellarian worms that cause this are deeply seated, so the spots don't fall off after a dip. The hope is that the dips will kill the worms in-situ and then they will decompose and be assimilated by the fish's body after some time. Trouble is, healing tissue in fish is also dark, so it's tough to tell. Watch for spots in NEW locations (use a reference photo) - that will tell you that the dip didn't work.

Thanks jay. Will give it more time then and stress less for now. Much appreciated

 

[ItzOnlySmellz]

So after a couple of weeks since dip, he been spot free for maybe a week now.
Thanks again to all who responded