need help distinguishing fish disease

[fusionx]

I'm not sure where i should be posting, sorry if I'm in the wrong spot

my fish has had blood in his top fin for a long time, in the last week or so his part of his fin has swollen up with blood, or so that's what it looks like, I'm not sure what it is or what i should do, today i found 2 bubbles on it too, please can someone help me out.

this is a photo of the fish, its an african cichlid but im not sure what kind.


http://sites.google.com/site/100gfishtank/help

http://sites.google.com/site/100gfishtank/Home/SNB10113.JPG?attredirects=0

 

[fusionx]

 

[cichlid2006]

go through this sticky http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=168667

my guesses would be septicemia or Lymphocystis but your fishes growth doesnt seem to match either of these 100% but it seems more like a mix of the 2. could be a tumour as well.
whats the fishes swimming like?
eating habits normal?
water perameters?

these little things may give more info leading to a suspect.

 

[fusionx]

I have looked at all of those and didn't find anything that matches up very well.
he is swing, and eating as normal. I don't think I've added any new fish in that tank within the last year. the other fish in the tank seem fine.
sadly all i am able to check is the PH due to not having a good test kit. I am able to take a water sample to the LFS and have them test it for me, what should I have them test it for? acording to my test kit my water is about 6.8 - 7.0 it should probably be around 8.0, thats due to inadiquit waserchanges i guess but i dont beleave that has much of anything to do with this.

 

[cichlid2006]

your ph is very low for one of the old world lake cichlids, i dont know which one cos africans arent my thing. do a ph test on your replacement water and if its also very low then you can buffer the water by adding a bag of material to your filter, i think crushed coral is/can be used for this but check up.
i agree it doesnt fit any of the disease perameters 100%.

get you lfs to test for nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia. they will likely do this anyway when you ask them to test it but make sure they do. get the actual results as "your water's fine" doesnt give any info at all.

inadequate amounts of water changes could have everything to do with this, coupled with your low ph it could be the whole problem and nothing more. on the other hand it could be a disease.
water changes are what keep our fish healthy by removing nitrate and other chemicals from the water, such as hormones. without water changes our fish would slowly be poisoned to death as nitrate rose to ridiculous levels.