Cichlid-sunken Belly?

Okay so my husband got these cichlids off of one of his friends for free as he just doesn't want fish anymore. We had a spare cycled recently vacated tank that previously held our other cichlids in so I said why not.

Now yesterday when I released them I saw that nearly all of them had sunken bellies and poor fins.

I took a pic of one of the 'worst' ones with his poop. I've read that fish with internal parasites have white or clear poop or am I incorrect in assuming this?

Seeing as it's poop is not white and NOW knowing that husbands said friend NEVER did water changes could this have been the product of poor water quality? That being said I don't know how often he had fed his fish either.

Some advice please!

 

Imma start off by saying I know nothing of cichlids. However, I purchased 2 cpds from my lfs and when I got them home I noticed they had sunken bellies. I was initially worried but then I thought, hey they were in a tank with like a hundred cpds. Maybe they didn't get enough to eat. So I fed the tank and let it be. A couple weeks later they are perfectly healthy and just as chubby as the rest of my cpds.
Maybe the guy who owned them before didn't feed them properly and they are just in need of some good nutrition.

 

Imma start off by saying I know nothing of cichlids. However, I purchased 2 cpds from my lfs and when I got them home I noticed they had sunken bellies. I was initially worried but then I thought, hey they were in a tank with like a hundred cpds. Maybe they didn't get enough to eat. So I fed the tank and let it be. A couple weeks later they are perfectly healthy and just as chubby as the rest of my cpds.
Maybe the guy who owned them before didn't feed them properly and they are just in need of some good nutrition.

Thanks for replying. I'm hoping this is the case and that it will be just a matter of proper feeding to get them healthy again.

...

Especially since my husband just told me he's going up today to pick up his friends tank and the rest of the cichlids that are in it. He reckons maybe 20-30 eeep :s.

I can't stand to see the fish in such poor condition so I know I'll have my hands full trying to bring them all back around.

 

It's amazing that you are willing to do it though. I wish I had the space to keep 30 cichlids.

 

It wouldn’t hurt to ask his friend how often he changed water and fed the fish. This way you have an idea of what was being done.

 

Hole in the head disease
The treatment is metronidazole, but it helps for the fish to eat the medication, a bath is pretty useless (dosent dissolve well)