Diagnosis Please? - Protomelas spilonotus Tanzania

[rmalford]

I bought these yesterday and when I arrived home and put them under the light this is what I saw:
















While I think the white blotches on their bodies and on the male's lips are just from them beating up on each other I would like to be sure. That is what I believed at first glance but his tank was rather dark. As you can see from the picture of the female above, the belly is somewhat sunken in and I'm not sure if it has just been underfed. The other two females are somewhat like that as well. Is it possible that this is fungus that I've never dealt with before? I will say that one of the females had a thin layer of cloudy eye and when I put her in a salt bath I saw it kind of just peel off although a tiny bit remained. Unfortunately, I didn't have a tank large enough to quarantine this group.

[imagirlgeek]

True fungus is incredibly rare when it comes to dealing with fish health. Usually, if you have a fungus it's because the flesh is dying due to an underlying bacterial infection. I can't know for sure, but it looks like they probably had some stressful crowded living for a while. If they are all eating, and are otherwise behaving normally, I'd just keep the water clean and see if it improves.

[rmalford]

True fungus is incredibly rare when it comes to dealing with fish health. Usually, if you have a fungus it's because the flesh is dying due to an underlying bacterial infection. I can't know for sure, but it looks like they probably had some stressful crowded living for a while. If they are all eating, and are otherwise behaving normally, I'd just keep the water clean and see if it improves.

Thanks for your input. I picked them out of a 240g that was lightly stocked and from what I understand they were in there only a few months after a dfwfb member won them at the last TCA auction. Although, he had a green texas cichlid that was blocked off by egg crate and I suspect him to be the culprit. The white on the male' slip is what is throwing me for a loop. They are acting normal now and I haven't tried to feed as I have only obtained them a day ago.