my fish look like coal miners

[deli_conker]

I recently lost a johanni (no idea what killed him) and so I've really been scutinizing my other fish and noticed something recently.

My yellow labs look like they have coal dust around thier mouths and over thier gills. It's not individual specks, more like a smear of dirt. Almost like a 5 o'clock shadow. They seem to be acting normal though.

Also, my red zebra has something around his lips(?). It looks like wood particles from him eating algae from the driftwood in the tank (which it may very well be). He's acting normal also.

I asked one of the fish people at the lfs and he of course recommended salt as a first treatment. Currently I haven't added anything.

I checked a few sites about fish disease and saw no pics/descriptions that mimic what I am seeing in my tank. Does anybody have any ideas as to what this is?

 

[lmw80]

Deli, have you checked your ammonia levels lately? It sounds quite possible that the black "smears" are burns from too much ammonia.

 

[jratuszn]

My labs also get dark grey patches around their faces, usually just above their mouths. I always assumed it was just superficial damage from trying to squeeze through holes too small for them. All of my levels are 0, so I know it's not that.
It doesn't seem to be adversely affecting them in any way, so I haven't worried about it.

-J

 

[deli_conker]

One of them looks a lot better today, but I did add some green malachite in the tank last night...

I tested the water and got the following .25 ammonia 0 nitrItes 10 nitrAtes. Did a 20% water change and will test again tomorrow night.

I could barely tell that there was any ammonia in the water. The only reason I could tell is because I had a vial of water from another tank next to it that was at 0 ppm and one was barely a bit greener than the other.

Also, the brown dots on my red zebra's mouth have disappeared...

 

[Menagerie]

I was just at a cichlid specialty LFS and a white zebra looked like it was working in a coal mine! I asked about it and the answer was too much spirulina in their diet. Does this help?

 

[Allivymar]

Hey deli? Do the black spots look like the ones on my big male angelfish in the pic below? On the off chance they do, those are actually scabs; pretty common with cichlids and usually due to them banging themselves on something in the tank or aggression with others.

 

[deli_conker]

Alli - no. They're a bit different. I took some pictures tonight, but won't have them up til tomorrow morning. I'll post them after I get to work...

 

[deli_conker]

Here is the pic I promised. The fish were being camera shy last night for some reason so I only have one pic that is just so-so. It's kind hard to see the gray on his gils because of the lighting, but you can see the moustache that's he's sportin' and maybe a bit below his eye...

 

[deli_conker]

I posted at cichlid forum as suggested and it was suggested to me by most responses that this is not a disease. That it is natural markings of lower quality stock.

I'm going to be keeping a rather close eye on the tank anyways just to be sure that everything is ok though.

Thanks for the advice...

 

[Menagerie]

This is from another thread:

I feed my africans spirulina flakes. They love 'em real good.

Are you sure that's not the cause?

 

[tkos]

My friends have similar markings and he just feeds them cichlid sticks and some flake food. Seems pretty common.

 

[Christmasfish]

I didn't post before but since it is still a mystery.....

Isn't there something called "black chin" with harder water cichlids?
And it is differentiated from ?"breeding spots"?...
I don't keep em yet, so I didn't pay hard enough attention to the article....
Though angels and rams are tempting me....