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i have a female 1 year old eletric blue cichlid.

i heep her in a 48*18*18 tank with 25 other cichlids aprox 5-14 cm in length

water parameter as follows

am-0
nitrIte- 1ppm
Nitrate- 60ppm
ph 7.8
hardness 400+
temp 28 deg cel

at the moment she has white patches along her whole body however these patches are only visible from an angle or head on, not when she is on her side.

she has allways had these spots (over 12 months) but they have gotten significantly worse this week following the clean out of my UGF. this also explains the Nitrite. however i expect this to resolve itsself over the next few days as i am also running a fluval 304.

50+%water change weekly (the tank is overstocked, trying to do somthing about it see add in classifieds) also when i sell my fry the stocking will be down to 19 of the smaller fish after i move some of them to the 3footer.

i can tell you that these patches are not white spot (there too large not tiny dots like white spot)

i feed colour bits and 3 times weekly frozen blood worm and beef heart.

i've tried treating with melafix to no result (suprise Suprise) and will get some anti fungal on the weekend.

she seems fine and is eating and playing with her tank mates like normal.

can someone shed some light on what this disease may be? if its anything at all?

I cant put a name to the disease you are seeing but I would bet that the nitrate level is contributing to the bad health. Do some extra water changes to lower it as much as you can. As your fish are used to the 50% water change continue with that and also do two additional 25% water changes weekly until you see that nitrate down to 10-20.
I would not add any medications to the tank until you get the nitrate level down.

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

thanks for your advise lindy. i did a large water change last night (60-70%) the fish seem to like it as they ususaly all spawn following a large water change like this. problem is the nitrate only usualy take 2-3 days to spike up to 60+ ppm again due to my overstocking problem. i was thinking though would floating or large potted plants work? only problem there is the tend to drop the ph, somthing i dont realy want to do. does anyone else have any suggestions?

p.s the spots have faded a little, but i expect they will return as they allways do. when i get a chance ill post some pics.