Black spot treatment with scaleless fish

[Turnips]

Hello! My fish have black spots which I believe are flukes. I read that sometimes they go away on their own, but the spots have gotten worse gradually. The fish do not appear in distress, however I would like to keep the disease from spreading. About half of my tank is affected so I need to treat the whole tank, but my concern is that I have scaleless fish in the aquarium. What would be some safe medications to use with scaleless fish? I have tried prazipro with no luck.

 

[Frank the Fish guy]

Can you remove the scaleless fish to somewhere else while you reset tank? Dip your fish (use lower concentrations for the scaleless fish) of your favorite parasite dip. Treat the tank, then change 100% of the water out and out and then put the fish back. Formalin is what the vets use for dipping to kill flukes in fisheries.

http://fisheries.tamu.edu/files/2013/09/Use-of-Formalin-to-Control-Fish-Parasites.pdf

 

[Turnips]

I’ve been trying to avoid that just because the scaleless fish are some spiny eels, so they give me a tough time when trying to catch them. However, I may just need to muster up some patience and use that method. If I were to avoid removing them, do you think that dipping the heavily affected fish like you said above and doing a 100% (or nearly 100% so the eels aren’t out of water) water change would be effective? Also thank you so much for the resource - that’s very helpful.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Got a pic ? Black spot disease is cause by the larvae of a worm I believe amd quite rare. Know what you're treating !

 

[Turnips]

Sure! Here is a photo, the keyhole is the one affected -

 

[A201]

If the issue is truly Black spot disease, it will likely go away on it's own. The life cycle is complex & requires a avian host.
If you believe the spots are Flukes, you might try Sea Chem's Paraguard. I believe its main ingredient is an Aldehyde, not nearly as dangerous as Formaldehyde. Half doses are usually recommended for scaleless fish.

 

[Turnips]

Interesting - thank you for the insight, it is greatly appreciated. I will check out seachem paraguard for sure. It looks like flukes to me, however I am not an expert when it comes to the less common fish disease ID. I will post updates here as the situation progresses.