Peacock cichlids- black spots and sunken belly?

Okay back story. These guys are new purchases. They are in a 10 gal QT tank. The big red and blue one had white stringy poop so I just did a round of general cure. I haven’t seen his bm since treatment but he won’t eat when I’m looking. So I don’t know if he’s improving. I noticed he has these 2 black spots. What can they be from? The yellow one looks like he has a sunken belly maybe? Compared to my other peacocks in main tank his shape is very different.

Side note my ammonia spiked in the qt tank to 2.0ppm maybe even 4.0. Hard to tell the difference in the chart. I did big water changes. Tried to accommodate med dose with water changes. I purchased SeaChem prime to help.

My ammonia was .5 today and I did a water change and ended the gen cure.

I fed them today. The big red one wouldn’t eat but when I walked away he did go up to the top. So I don’t if he’s actually eating at all. But he looks fed so maybe just picks at the bottom stuff.

The qt tank wasn’t fully cycled. I had fish in it then moved them to my 25 gal and that tank was empty. I kept filter going but turned heater off. I have a feeling that may have killed off bacteria.

More pics

Ok, first things first, 10 gallons is WAY too small for a peacock cichlid. They need at least 55 gallons. It sounds like you disease was caused by the water parameters. If you can bring down the nitrite with different medications, I find the nitrate generally goes down too. Plus if they are less than two weeks old there is a good chance they were sick when you bought them. If the tank is fully cycled it is very unlikely that they developed a sickness in your tank.
I would suggest either trying to return them or you could treat for an internal parasite because that's generally the cause for white stringy poop or the tetra lifeguard because that treats so many common diseases it is just convenient. Plus your going to want to get a big tank for them.

Treat them for intestinal worms. see section 3 of following link.

Colin_T said:

Treat them for intestinal worms. see section 3 of following link.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

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I just finished the general cure for the white stringy poop. I was concerned about the black markings. Although I guess they can just be his normal coloring. It’s just that it isn’t bilaterally on him. Just the one side. Do you agree the yellow one looks like it has a sunken belly? He was in the tank for the general cure rounds which just ended yesterday. So hopefully whatever caused that gets kicked with the meds too. He is eating.

MagicGirl33 said:

Ok, first things first, 10 gallons is WAY too small for a peacock cichlid. They need at least 55 gallons. It sounds like you disease was caused by the water parameters. If you can bring down the nitrite with different medications, I find the nitrate generally goes down too. Plus if they are less than two weeks old there is a good chance they were sick when you bought them. If the tank is fully cycled it is very unlikely that they developed a sickness in your tank.
I would suggest either trying to return them or you could treat for an internal parasite because that's generally the cause for white stringy poop or the tetra lifeguard because that treats so many common diseases it is just convenient. Plus your going to want to get a big tank for them.

Click to expand...

Yes the 10 gal was just to quarantine the new fish before adding to the main tank. It was all I had. I have never bought from this fish place before so I was being cautious. I did treat the stringy poop with general cure so they both got treated for possible infections. Hopefully they both start eating and pooping normally now. I got my ammonia way down from the spike. And there was no nitrites. And nitrates only got up to 10ppm. I think the ammonia was caused by these frozen cubes I got. To entice the red guy to eat. And I did shelled peas. Both of which he didn’t eat (while I was watching at least). Has anyone ever had a fish that won’t eat if they’re watching??