Black spot on my black skirt!!!

[Davey Jones]

Hello a few days ago i noticed a tiny white spot above one of my black skirt tetra's eyes, since then the spot has turned from white to black and has doubled in size. I've checked out a bunch of web pages but can't seem to find something that matches what i see, so i have a pic attached that is of horrible quality but hopefully someone with a good eye can pick something out and tell me what it is and how i might go about curing it. I've done all my water tests and all are where they should be and i do regular water changes as often as i can.
If the pick is just to bad to see anything let me know and i will try to get a better one, but it took me about 10 trys just to get this one.

By the way he is the BS that is to the far left of the pic.

[lord_whitehead]

Am I the only one who finds it ironic that DAVEY JONES finds a BLACK SPOT on one of his fish?

Irony aside, I hope your fish is ok!

Lord J.

[biggs]

I have had these once and they ended up with black tumors of some sort....Not sure if it was TB or what it was but they lived a long time with it. Is the black spot a bump????

[Davey Jones]

From what i can tell it does seem to raise up a bit and does resemble a bump.

[biggs]

Then I suspect it's the same thing. I've heard they're very prone to getting this. I'm certainly no expert on the condition....Maybe others can tell you more.

[Rondelet]

Are the black spots/raised bumps discrete or quite diffuse? It’s possible that what you are seeing are the cysts of metacercariae of digenean trematodes – aka intermediate stages of flatworms encysted in the skin of your fish. The cysts are black due to melanisation around the cysts. In most instances such infestations are harmless since another host, usually a bird, has to eat the fish to compete the life cycle. Usually the larval worms come into your system via snails which are a different host in the parasite’s life-cycle.

Not sure if TB would be responsible – since it usually is fatal ether chronically or acutely. Also, you often see collateral signs of bacterial infection. Have you lost any fish and have you observed any other signs indicating that the fish might be ill?

If you can you should try to get some more pictures (often it takes a lot more than 10 tries to get a decent shot of anything!).

[biggs]

Mine had tomors....they were not worms as I did disected one to investigate. I eventually euthanised them as they ultimately got worse.

[Davey Jones]

Well from what can tell it seems to be discrete, now that i see you mentioned snails i suppose it might have something to do with them, i've added a few snails in the last month or so (malayan livebearer,zebra and a black mystery) and there are a few pond snails that seem to have hitched a ride on one of my plants.
Now onto the loss of any fish, actually i lost a BS a little over a month ago from god knows what, he also had a black spot on him but it was much bigger and was closer to his tail, but i never really thought much of it because when i bought him the dot was there, and it seemed to remain the same for a long while, so i assumed it was part of his coloring. Anyway he ended up dying while i was away for a week and a friend who was taking care of them had no clue what to do(basic knowledge on feeding only) and when i got back and seen him, i knew he was in bad shape, he was swimming really weird and slowly, so i scooped him out of the tank and had him in a container while i looked up a possible cause but sadly he died within the hour, but the dot that i thought was harmless must have been something bad because it was horrible looking, almost like something was eatting him from the inside out.
This new dot is in a different place and much smaller then the one that was on the dead BS and also the other one didn't start with a white spot or at least not while i had him in my care.

Ok so i'll see what i can do about some better pics, will post them asap.

[Rondelet]

...he was swimming really weird and slowly...but the dot that i thought was harmless must have been something bad because it was horrible looking, almost like something was eatting him from the inside out.

Some good info here. If the "horrible looking" bit was the focal point of an ulcer (deep pit with hemorrhaging) it may have been a bacterial infection and Brian might be correct.

If you can get a closer image great. If not, have a close look and be as descriptive as possible as this can be just as informative as a picture.

[Davey Jones]

Ok just a quick update to those who were helping me with my fish problem, i've not had internet since my last post(computer fried) and just got another one yesterday, so i'm updating you on the progress.
The fish still has the spot although it seems to have gotten better and he has never acted weird since i noticed it and seems fine as kind. I medicated the tank with jungles lifeguard all-in-one treatment in hopes that it might be one of the ailments on the box, not sure how well it worked but i did everything the box said and since then he's still pretty much the same maybe even a little bit better(the spot), so i'm gonna keep a close eye on him like i've been doing and if anything changes i will post another update.

Thanks to everyone who offered opinions and options.