African Cichlid Orange Please Help Need Advice

[kevingrods]

 
guys today, my fish started to look ill.  I have had suspicions of this over the past two days, but he has always managed to hide this very well.   He developed noticeable white spots on him and for the first time, he is now up on the top of the tank by the filter as if he is searching for air.  This is not normal for this fish until around 30 minutes ago i have never seen this..  His tank mate is the identical fish of him same size and he is doing just fine, swimming with all fins up and happy with no white spots or anything, he however the "sick fish" is not doing well.  I have noticed some noticeable brown algea today develop start to stain the decor.  It has formed rather quickly.  I have tested the water and the test results are as followed according the the api freshwater test kit system.
 
amonia-.25-  I understand this may be high but i did the calculation on the calculation chart and the results came back below harmful level
ph-7.8 which is low for this fish, but i did not want to do drastic change to increase the ph.
nitrite- 0
nitrate-30 ish
 
 
he is eating, and swimming around.  40 minutes ago, he looked as if everything was normal and now for the first time i see him at towards the top of the tank. 
 
He is an African Orange Cichilid.  
 
please advise on what i should do
 
I am still new to fish keeping so please be gentle.  I am looking for some sort of action I can take now to help this fish.
 
Thank you,
 
Kevin

 

[GetItSahn]

I myself am also new to fishkeeping. Hopefully someone with more experience will come along and help.
 
The only things that i know to cause white spots are ich and fungus. Ich looks grain like (like salt) and fungus is more of a cotton. I haven't owned cichilids but I have dealt with fungus and ich. A medicine-less remedy for ich would be to increase temp slowly to 86 degrees and add salt but idk what your fish can handle. Fungus can be treated with 5 dollars tablets from your lfs. Wait for more advice and a proper diagnosis, these are just suggestions. 
 
As for the brown algae... http/freshaquarium.about.com/cs/maintenance1/p/algaebrown.htm
hopefully the article helps, you can see if that's the same problem you are having.
 
Best of luck to your fish

 

[kevingrods]

Hey thank you!  After further examination, I am starting to believe the fish has just found a new hiding spot which is at the top of the tank behind the filter which is a good spot because I can't even find him and he comes down to play with his buddy and retreats up there when he feels.  I do have around 6 spots to hide with 2 fish and he may have discovered the very best spot.  This has made me more relaxed on that he may not die tonight, so i feel better.  I think the fact he was at the top and I have never seen this worried me and I have may have went into a slight panic prematurely.  I hope this is the situation.  On the other hand he does still have those white spots which is concerning and I would like to address once i can be certain of which disease he may have acquired.  I am not sure which one it could be.  The article on the algae did help.  thank you very much.  I really appreciate the response.   

 

[GetItSahn]

No problem man, my fish always hide behind the filter when stressed/sick. Those white spots are definitely something to monitor. Ich is highly contagious and both ich and fungus can kill if left untreated. Hopefully someone can respond in the morning and you can be sure of what it actually is.

 

[kevingrods]

yeah honestly, i can handle the ick or the fungus, i have some medication on stand by, i ordered all sorts of stuff in case anything like this happened, i just need to 100 percent determine what it is so i can use the correct stuff.  thanks again