If a silver dollar fish has black spots on it is it ill??

Question

I have a fresh water silver dollar fish and it just started getting black spots is it ill??

Answer 1

Silver Dollar (Metynnis argenteus): Quite a popular fish. Peaceful, and is a schooler. Although you can only see the fins with a few spots, this fish can get quite a few "pimples" on their body. Small, black spots so dont worry straight away!!! ...There is nothing wrong with your fish until the spots starts growing or the fish starts rubbing against the tank..

http://www.aquariumlife.net/profiles/characidae/silver-dollar/100015.asp

Answer 2

Most likely a parasite infestation. Black spot is usually caused by a trematode. I would assume these are new fish you only recently purchased?

These are practically impossible to treat in this current life stage, but usually pose no problem for the fish either. In almost all cases the trematode require another host to complete their life cycle. This can sometimes be snails, so if you have snails in the tank you can control the trematodes by removing all of the snails.

Medications such as fluke tabs or Clout can kill this in other life stages and a treatment would probably be a good idea to prevent additional infestation. Just treat the tank as per the package directions.

MM

Answer 3

The like cause for the black spot is parasitic infestation. It could be the larvae stage of digenetic fluke parasites.

I am not aware of any common treatment for such parasites so my advise would be to isolate the fish and keep it under observation. Do routine water change to the fish in the hospital tank and observe the situation. You might want to search the web for help.

Below is a link to the black spot disease from a cichlid forum.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diseases_misc_parasites.php

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:) Found the picture for you here, sliver dollar with black spots.
http://www.petsolutions.com/Article.aspx?id=86

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Answer 4

the fish is suffering from fungus!this is quite common what u need to do is to put medicines such as methyl blue or chlorine in a small chamber where u can put a fish such as a jar with the fish in it and do this daily for a week.I hope that ur fish is strong because the fish dont survive more than a day with this fungus but if ur's does than God wants it to live!! For the future to prevent this keep on changing ur water for the fish and give some sunlight to the fish and the tank.