Will neon goby eat black spot off tang?

[MelanieF]

Curiosity question...

I plan on getting a yellow Tang for my 72 gallon. From everything I've read they have tendencies of developing Black Spot. If I get one and it goes through quarantine and dip and still develops this parasitic worm, is there any kind of natural organism that will eat the black worm off the Tang?

TIA,

Mel

 

[Len]

My personal experience is neon gobies rarely will clean tangs. Cleaner/skunk shrimps will do so more often and thus probably has a greater chance of helping rid fish of parasitic worms.

 

[MelanieF]

Thanks Len!

In the past I had an Atlantic Blue Tang and a Kole Tang in a tank w/ a Neon Goby and a Cleaner Shrimp. The fish never had parasites but both the Cleaner and the Goby cleaned the Tangs all the time. It was pretty comical to see this humongous Cleaner hanging onto the side of a Tang trying to clean it off and man were those fish patient when the Cleaner was poking around their mouths. :lol:

I was asking about them eating Black Spot because nothing I've found actually says they'd eat it. Scott Michael's "Marine Fishes" book says only that the Neon Gobies will "nip ich cysts off other fishes and may even remove the viral infection Lymphocystis" and from my reading I'm understanding that Black Spot isn't Ich.

Hopefully I won't end up needing to know the answer but thought I should be prepared in case of emergency...

Mel

 

[Reef Guy11]

Those Black spot are call Black Marine Ich. My tang would get it every now and then. They would go away when I feed formula two with Garlic.

 

[Expos Forever]

Black ich is easily treated with a freshwater dip. With proper QT/ dip procedures, you shouldn't have to worry about it.