Red ulcers on cichlid, tell me something i dont know!

[H20lover99]

Hello everyone your thoughts are much needed rn. I have 2 cichlids that I keep in 2 different tanks I'm sure they both have whatever this is but I'll focus on her cuz shes worse. I have noticed for about 3-4 months now black convict has growing red lesions on her. (Photo below) for about 2 months now she has become completely hidden. Scared and will not eat at least when I'm around. I have tried a few different treatments only to find negative feedback online. Seems to be the case with any info I find out there. She is clamped up on the inside of her rock almost sideways. No rubbing on things, I havent seen her poop. I dont notice any body changes other then ulcers no bulging eyes. Colorless. I do try to put her with the male cichlid every once in awhile to rid the need for another tank and she always get hurt so I have to divide them up again but that was before this started. I have tried all the api powder treatments with no luck (powder in water). I am now using the general cure api in bloodworms bc thats all they will eat thinking its flukes. Not sure if I should stop feeding bloodworm(poss contamination?) I was thinking septicemia but I got no results from that. With new treatments I am doing salt balts and I feel they have become very little better. I thot maybe my plant was dying causing disease fixed that. Any suggestions. Male convict has symptoms of -no ulcers, seen white stringy poop, hidden in back tank (unusual) by bubble wall. Thank you guys

 

[Colin_T]

Don't add chemicals unless you know what the problem is.

Are you sure it's an ulcer and not just colouration because it's a female in breeding condition?
The fact it has red on both sides of the body would rule out an ulcer, which normally appear on one side only.

If fish are eating well but do a stringy white poop, they usually have intestinal worms. See section 3 of the following link for treating worms.

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

The tank needs some substrate to make the fish feel more secure. Floating plants can also help.

 

[Ichthys]

It’s just normal convict colours.

 

[GaryE]

Yup. Red shows up on convicts regularly. She looks a bit like a Honduran red point "convict" female, a species closely related to the standard convict. The fish farms don't care about crossing species, or shipping close species under the wrong name.

Her behaviour sounds stressed. Give her some gravel to move around and dig in, a lot of rocks set so the digging won't make them collapse, and you should see a healthy fish, if the treatments haven't harmed her.

 

[Ichthys]

It looks stressed because light is reflecting up on to it’s underside from the bottom (do you have a white sheet of polystyrene underneath?). There isn’t a fish alive that appreciates that. Give it a substrate and it won’t be so pale.