Midas Cichlid

Question
Hi Craig. I just need your expertise on my Midas Cichlid. I just recently lost a 13", 3 year ol Albino Oscar named Bino from Hole in the head, Lateral Line erosion, dropsy, fin and tail rot. Now I am only left with a pleco and a 12" Midas Cichlid named Borat in a 55 gallon. I am worried that Borat would have some sort of parasite in him. I've been observing his feces and I've only seen few traces of white stringy material around his feces. His been doing good, swimming around and being really active. He's been eating a lot too, I am feeding him Hikari Staple Cichlid Food, Cichlid Sticks, Aquadine food mixture of spirulina and protein and had been soaking them in grounded and diluted Daily Multi Vitamins I bought from Costco. My other worry is that he has some white cyst looking material near his gill and some black round pimple looking cyst in his lips. I can send pics if you want, I just dont know how to. My parameters are: 7.0 pH, 20ppm nitrate, 0.25ppm nitrite, <0.25ppm ammonia. Thank you for your help.

Answer
From the water parameters you listed it sounds like you might be overfeeding him a bit, remember on large Cichlids they only need to eat twice per day and only what they can consume in a 2 minute period of time. I would add some aquarium salt to the tank to help bolster the immune system of your fish, 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons of water is a good maintenance amount and will kill off light parasite loads.  Also increase the aquarium temperature to around 82F for about a week, the combination of salt and the temperature increase normally will take care of an issue your describing.  Remember after a week to reduce the temperature back down to around 78F and keep up on weekly water changes of 15% for general tank maintenance.