Why do you think your fish has a parasite?
He’s picking up food at feeding time and spitting it back out once he like chews on it some. And his poo is white and thin stringy. His colors aren’t as vibrant as they usually are either. Though, I haven’t seen a sunken stomach yet.
Okay, it would help to have pictures of the stringy poop. Apparently you had the internal parasite problem with your fish before you joined this forum so it'll help to get an idea what the routine with your tank is etc. Could you please fill this out? It'll get is- all on the same page:
Just FYI--Crushed Coral (CC), aragonite or limestone chips, in a mesh media bag (1 cup per 30 gallons of tank volume), added to your HOB overflow chamber or canister basket will raise KH and pH slowly and stabilize it. It may also raise your GH slightly. It works continuously, only needs to be replaced if gets too gunked up or completely disintegrates and just needs to be rinsed and squished around in the bag (to grind slime and gunk off the chips and expose new surfaces) and rinsed every month or so. What is your tap water pH, GH and KH?
I actually do have crushed coral in my filters and I’ve been using it for about two months now and I never saw a stabilization in my pH. I’m gonna replace it with some new and see if that does anything but the only way I can get my pH above 7.8 is to use API pH Up. My tap water is very soft, it’s at a 0 on the API test strips for GH and KH. And pH is 6.8
I’m not positive it’s internal parasites but I’d rather treat it as if it was instead of ignoring it as I had fish who died from it awhile back. He was extremely weak and when I was able to get my hands on some API general cure, he was too weak to survive the first round. Unless there are other ways to hopefully prevent or cure it that don’t involve medicating the whole tank. I don’t have access to a hospital tank atm.
What is 0, the GH or the KH or both? How much CC is in your filter? It's almost pure calcium carbonate. But... for African Cichlids, a pH of 7.8, that stays at 7.8 in the tank is fine. Did the CC bring the pH up to that level in your tank? My tank pH is 7.8. My tap is 8.2-8.4 and drops to 7.8 about 24 hours after it leaves the tap and my Cichlids do fine in that water.
The GH and KH are 0. I have a marineland emperor and a penguin 350 and I have crushed coral in one side of the media containers in each filter. I’m not sure the actual amount tho. It doesn’t stay at 7.8, it’ll drop to 7.4-7.6 and stabilize around 7.4. I didn’t notice any difference in the crushed coral raising pH. My tank was around 7.8 as a high when I added the cc the first time.
Okay, try getting the total amount of cc to 1.75 cups. Even 2 cups considering the fact that your GH is also 0, it won't hurt. If you can stabilize it at 7.8 you should be good and wouldn't need to add an additional pH buffer. You might though, look into raising that GH too. Kjeldsen is right. A low GH is an indication that your water is missing a lot of the trace minerals and elements like magnesium, calcium, potassium, manganese etc. that fish need to remain healthy. I don't recommend, however, adding any homemade rift salt lake formula to your tank unless you know your Cichlids were wild caught from one of those specific rift valley lakes and/or you know they've been kept in brackish water. Also, adding baking soda to an aquarium causes an immediate change in the pH of the tank and a sudden shift of .4 points either direction is enough to kill some fish. There are commercial products that will add trace minerals and raise the GH a little without adding salt (sodium chloride) or changing the pH of the tank suddenly. Seachem Equilibrium is one I would recommend along with the crushed coral.
That’s just my tap GH. I haven’t tested my tank’s GH but I can later today. These fish were not wild caught so I’d be weary to add anything homemade as you said.
Okay, if you have no QT tank, you'll have to treat all the fish. There is a u tube video about treating internalt parasites recorded by John from KG Tropicals. If you can get that video, he explains how to feed the antiparasitic to your fish rather than just putting it in the water. You'll need Epsom salt, API General Cure, frozen bloodworms, Focus and Garlic Guard. I'm sorry I don't know how to upload YouTube videos to this site. I suggest that you get a 10 gallon tank with a filter and heater and just treat this one fish if you don't want to treat your whole tank. Get the above items, find the video and he does through the process step by step. It's a two video series.
I got a 10gal and treated him in it with general cure. I placed him back into the community tank after the round of meds and he’s still not eating... I even went out and bought a new food. I’ve tried 3 different foods and still nothing. His stomach is still sunken but I figured that could be from him not eating in a few weeks? I’m not really sure what to do now.
