# Black Spots on RCS?



## 82nd_Airborne (Mar 28, 2012)

I just noticed this today, I dont have a better camera, so hopefully this pic is good enough. She has black spots on her back and sides. She seemed to be grazing, but i have no clue. Any ideas what is going on?

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 0
KH - 10
GH - 6
PH - 7.4

I dont' know why the nitrates are 0 either, I shook the hell out of the test and bottle. Theres a FTS as well.


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## Bananariot (Feb 28, 2012)

Lol maybe she's so red that its just darker on some patches. If she's moving around normally and not sluggish, she should be alright.


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## moosenart (Feb 18, 2012)

It could be a bacteria that eats the shell, only if it spreads to others.


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## 82nd_Airborne (Mar 28, 2012)

> It could be a bacteria that eats the shell, only if it spreads to others


God I hope not, I'm having a hard enough time as it is. As you can see in the pic, yet another batch of eggs dropped.


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## moosenart (Feb 18, 2012)

82nd_Airborne said:


> God I hope not, I'm having a hard enough time as it is. As you can see in the pic, yet another batch of eggs dropped.


More experienced peoPle need to chime in. My brother had It on his cherries.


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## Lil' Swimz$ (Jul 24, 2010)

How big is that tank? I had a really hard time breeding even cherries in anything less than 10gallons, although I'm sure people have .


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## 82nd_Airborne (Mar 28, 2012)

Its 5.5 gallon, I'm not concerned about the dropped eggs atm. I think I have identified whats going on, and it is an infection. 
http://www.fishdept.sabah.gov.my/download/diseases of cultured prawns.pdf
Page 6 has the description I think.


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## jasonpatterson (Apr 15, 2011)

It definitely could be black spot. A big water change might help, as the shrimp will tend to molt afterward and they'll drop the infection. Antibiotics can help too.


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## Soothing Shrimp (Nov 9, 2011)

I can't see your cherries close enough, but sometimes sakura have natural black on them. It's just the way that strain developed.


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## 82nd_Airborne (Mar 28, 2012)

She was all red yesterday, I only really know her specifically because she is my darkest colored. I'm going to try and induce a molt, hopefully that helps. Maybe she'll present her side for me to get a better shot.


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## randyl (Feb 1, 2012)

Your water is on the hard side, it can cause molting difficulty thus their shells just aren't as perfect/pretty. Have you noticed molt recently? I think WC will help, gradually reduce TDS should help in the long run.

If it still feeds normally it's probably not the virus in your link, also virus can't be treated by antibiotics, there's no direct cure for virus.


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## somewhatshocked (Aug 8, 2011)

Neos can handle really hard water and a GH 6 isn't bad at all. They can also handle some serious dissolved solids - like 350-400. Which is why many people with EI dosing and CO2-enriched planted tanks use Neos instead of Crystals.

Many of the deepest Painted Fire Reds exhibit patches of dark coloration on their shells as they age and change. While there's always a thread of bacterial issues in aquaria, the shrimp in the photograph looks fine to me.


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## 82nd_Airborne (Mar 28, 2012)

Ok, thank you all, I guess I'll just ride this out and hope she is fine. I am slowly lowering the TDS with a Zero-Water filter that I got a while ago, but I wanted to avoid going too fast one way as I have baby cherries in there.


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## cardgenius (Mar 27, 2011)

Keep an eye on them. Like it was said, some of the darker fire reds/pfr can have a little black on them that's normal. If it gets worse and starts spreading then I'd say you have Black Spot Bacteria. I just went through this with my PFR tank.

When I first noticed it I thought it was the normal black color that they show but over a month or so it got real bad to he point where some were covered in the black bacteria. I also noticed breeding had stopped and that it seemed to be killing the babies quite quickly cause they all of a sudden started disappearing. 

For treatment I found that JBJ Fuanol 2 is best but is not sold in the US. So I decided to treat with Seachem. I started with a half dose and worked my way up to a full dose every 12 hours, although I think starting at full dose is probably better. Treated for about a month. Since the bacteria grows on the shell, I sucked out every molt I saw while treating. When I was done I did a 80% wc and threw in some carbon. I did try dosing more than the 2 doses a day and started loosing shrimp so I cut it back. I did loose a handful of shrimp but they were the ones that were infected the worse. All seems well now but I'll be watching them closely to see how they do. 

Sorry for the long post, hope that helps.


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## 82nd_Airborne (Mar 28, 2012)

Well, my shrimp died RIP 
I pulled her out this afternoon. All the rest seem fine, I hope that's the end of it.


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## eco (Feb 23, 2012)

Don't know if it helps or not but I always drop in a few Indian almond leaves whenever my shrimp looks ill. So far so good for me


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