help black specks

i have a large tank of mixed african and central american cichlids. i know im not supposed to do thay but living in an apartment i only have room for 1 tank, i keep ph at 7 thats how it comes out of the tap. ammonia 0 and nitrites 0 . I check once a week. 80% water change twice a month. this tank is up and running for two years + . some of my fish are getting black spots on them.some on their fins and some on their bodies. i know that some africans pepper like a discus face. but my kyoga flamebacks seem to have alot of it. my yellow tailed aceis have some specks in the middle of their blue bodies. my red devil has some on his tail and he didnt have them when i bought him a few weeks back. i showed it to 2 diffrent fis stores and one said black fungus and the stuff is not fuzzy looking and the other store said more water changes. it looks like if you stabbed an ink pen on a piece of paper . the little mark it would make. about half the fish have it now and i just want to figure it out. two fish really looked infested with it, 1 flame back and 1 black and red hap. i dont think i can make a picture show up. please help. p.s. i know when my red devil gets too big i will have to put him on craigs list. does any one know what this black stuff that looks like pen marks is,????

Get some pics up please. It sounds like what I had but it might not be.... And if you only have one tank you should only have one type because if the don't have the parameters they like they won't have the same beautiful colors or personality.... Oh I should mention RD can but DOWN RIGHT MEAN he might kill everything before he outgrows the tank he might not but with RD you never trust them until they are adults

i cant get the pic on this site can i email them to you and you put them up bro????

sounds like a parasite.

I had a similar problem a few years ago and never did figure out what it was. I'd read it could be caused by feeding too much spirulina (I was not doing this) or that it could be parasitic, like black spot disease. It started after I had added a few new fish and it seemed to come and go on various fish until it eventually just went away without any treatment.

Does it look like this or is it more like individual spots?

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Close up.
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So weird my male severum has this on his forehead it came like 2 weeks ago and seems to not affect him.At least we are attempting to make progress in the i.d. of this.....I would not call it a problem as much as unwanted blemish for me he is healthy maybe stress from losing his gf (put her in my planted) or fighting idk.Ill see if i can get pictures

yes these are the spots. does any one know what this is?????? i tried coppersafe and quick cure. no luck. you cant tell me no one has ever seen this before. are you telling me a new disease has been born in my well taken care of tank ???????????????????????????????? thanks 4 postin pics. i emailed pics of red devil to someone but i couldnt get the pics on this format

I haven't received the e-mail if you sent them to me

anthony wrote:yes these are the spots. does any one know what this is?????? i tried coppersafe and quick cure. no luck. you cant tell me no one has ever seen this before. are you telling me a new disease has been born in my well taken care of tank ???????????????????????????????? thanks 4 postin pics. i emailed pics of red devil to someone but i couldnt get the pics on this format

If your fish aren't exhibiting any other symptoms, I wouldn't worry too much about treating them any more with medications. Like I said earlier, it eventually disappeared from my tank.
There is a lot of information if you do a search on black spots on freshwater fish. Here is just one -- most of the info that I've read seem to agree that it's not fatal. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

For posting pictures, a free account with Photobucket is what I use.