Sick fish or physical damage? Please help.

[MMantelli]

I dont know if this guy is sick or if one other guy got ahold of him. It almost looks like some scales were peeling off. It is a 20 galon all male I think and hope mixed malawi setup my paramaters are nos good i has a baby bn pleco die and it spiked my nitrites up pretty high ammonia is low as always I have 5 fish right now its only been running about a month and a half with a api filstar 75g filter thanks in advance everyone Oh and its that quite line on his left side

 

[garfy]

Your pictures are a bit blurry to tell but I'd hazard a guess that aggression is your problem.Malawi's really need a bigger tank than 20 gallons (I know I know we all say that)the problem is the footprint of the tank.Malawi's are super territorial and the dominant male or sometimes female will claim a good sized portion of the tank.In your case I would say the whole tank.So your dominant fish will be defending the whole tank and will injure or possibly kill any rivals.
Very often it takes fish death for people to realise just how much space these fish need.
Hope this helps.

 

[Andrew McFadden]

Does its color look dull? Does it look like all the scales are coming off or just in one spot?

I had the same problem once and quarantined the fish then others got sick. So I had to treat the whole tank I used maracyn two and coppersafe made by mardel.

Other than that +1 to what Garfy said they really need a bigger tank for aggression issues. This article may help a little too
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/lake-malawi-aquarium-stocking-cichlids/

 

[MMantelli]

Ya I know they need a bigger one I just got the 20 to start and am getting a 55 on Friday petco is having a sale on tanks $1 per gallon up to 55galons. And then the 20 will be my quarantine tank. And its only the one spot on his left side that is like that ill get some more pics when I get back home Thursday.

 

[MMantelli]

Not much but he does fade in and out a little on a regular basis.