# Caribes are sick



## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

I just got some caribes about 2 weeks ago. When they came in I noticed that they had some thick black patches on their anal fins. I asked Pedro about ti when they arrived and he said it was an oddity and not to worry about it. Easy enough I tbought. But I just got home this weekend to take a look at them and the black patch has gotten larger and it definately looks 3 dimensional.

I thought it might be a leech on his fins. It's on both tail and anal fins. They also have spots on their sides that are raised. They won't be still enough so that I can get a good look at them, but I think I saw fish lice.

Now these guys are in a somewhat heavily planted tank so whatever treatment route I take has to be plant safe. I was thinking about adding salt, but that'd hurt the plants. Then I thought about copper, still some plants are copper sensitive. Other options I thought of was either adding Melafix or manualy removing the piranhas and picking the leeches and/or lice off of them. Of course I'd have to some how slow them down so they wouldn't bite the bejesus out of me.

Suggestions?


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## DonH (Jan 25, 2003)

Do the spots look like black ich? It could be black spots disease which are actually flukes. There's very little you can do about them except wait for their life cycle to complete and die off (if that's what it is).


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## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

No, the bumps look more like something is attached to the skin or under it. Look like the skin is protruding with some kind of parasite at the very tip. I went ahead and dosed the tank with a light dose of metronidazole. I'll keep you updated on how things go. I'm hoping this time next week they will be parasite free.


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## thePACK (Jan 3, 2003)

any pics to verify what it could be?


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## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

thePACK said:


> any pics to verify what it could be?
> [snapback]780108[/snapback]​












Thats the best pic I have, see the black on the anal fin? I'll try to get more pics this weekend when I go home if it's still there. I asked some buddies of mine at work what I should use to treat them and they said metronidazole, so I picked some up and treated them. The raised bumps on the skin seem to be disappearing already. Nothing's happing with the thick black fleshy stuff on the anal fins though.


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