fish lice

Question
Chris I hope you can help me.  I have a ten gallon tank with breeding guppies.  I breed and feed them to a freshwater baracuda.  I do a 25% water change every two weeks and have a filter for a 30-60 gallon tank that is fairly new and seems to be doing a good job.  The tank has been set up for just over a year.  I haven't had the pH levels checked since we set it up.  Okay, here's the question.  I found one of my females dead two days ago and she was covered in black spots.  I scooped her out and put her into a jar.  I added just a little water and let it settle.  When I came back to it all the black spots were moving on their own.  My local pet store 'expert' said it was probably ick.  I am not an expert by any means but I do know that ick is white.  So, I did some researching on my own and I figure it's probably fish lice.  That's the only parasite I could come up with that moves on it's own and isn't a worm.  My real question is, after I clean up this mess, are these going to be good feeders or should I just start over?  Also, I fed the baracuda the day before I found the dead female.  Is the baracuda going to have problems with this too?  I really don't want to lose this fish.  Feeders can be replaced.  I don't want to sound like a dips#!t but could you give me a step by step way to get rid of these things?  Thanks

Answer
Hi Shalimar;

You may be right about them being fish lice. They usually have small spots on them, are pretty flat against the fish and do move over the fishes' bodies. If your fish is a similar color to the semi-transparent lice it makes the fish look spotted. They are also known by part of their scientific name "Argulus". To see for sure this is what your guppies have, here is a web page with a photo of a baby koi infected with them;

http://www.koidream.com/ziektargulus32007.jpg

Feeder guppies are quite prone to diseases of all kinds because of the environment they are kept in and the harsh way they are transported before you get them to your house. Overcrowding the tank makes it worse so keep your ten gallon feeder tank lightly stocked and make weekly 25% to 50% water changes. Your barracuda is definitely in danger of infection too but you can treat his tank as well just to be sure they haven't spread. It does take several weeks to be sure all are killed as they go through different stages of their life cycle. A commonly used treatment available in many fish stores is "Fluke Tabs". Here is a good web page about getting rid of the the little nasties;

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/disease/treatargulus.php

Good luck and I hope your fish do okay...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins