A club for owners of Parrot Cichlids

My husband and I fell in love with parrot cichlids as soon as we seen one. We brought Nyko (our fist parrot) home on the 10th and the fish seemed fine, but due to a problem with our 55 gallon tank we had to place him in a 10 gal tank temporarily, nyko adjusted just fine but over the last two days has been acting really strange. He is swimming on his side and hiding a lot or he just lays right on the rocks. He also has a small black spot. I was thinking it was black spot disease but that doesn't explain the side swimming.

I'm pretty sure what I have is a parrot chiclid of some kind (about 3.5 inches if you don't count the fin and tail flourish-y parts) with a common pleco (about 7 inches). We rescued them from an abandoned house. Because I'm ignorant, I thought it was a goldfish and kept it for about a week without a heater and it survived (room temp here in SoCal was not too cold I guess). The local fish dealer straightened me out when I showed him a picture of my "deformed" goldfish... a red parrot! So now to my questions:

1. Tank contents

can someone plaese tell me the normal level of nitrate , ph , nitrite, hardness , alkalinity ? i really need to know now my fish are not acting normal please any advice ?

Ok don't mean to be a bother but I have another question lol. I was feeding my fish the last of the pellets this morning and noticed something odd about one of them. My smaller parrot has a missing fin! Not the tail fin but one of it's side fins don't know what they are called their 'arms' I guess. Will this grow back? I have him separated now in case it was from fighting.

We just purchased two blood parrots they were fine for a week and in the last two days they have been hiding in the cave we have made for them, not eating. Today, we took away the rocks of the cave to see if they were Okay and they are swimming on their sides, sometimes not even moving. The gills are still working but the fins are not. We had the water checked and it is “Perfect” the pet store said. What is happening, are they going to die???????? Please e-mail us directly RMdaycare2@aol.com if you have any ideas!!!!

My parrot fish has a large round, red shaped object hanging out of its bottom.(if you know what I mean) Is this a breeding behavior or is it sick?

I was recently given a really big parrot fish (and a smaller one) by a friend who had bought a fish tank on craigslist that came with 2 parrots... Anyways, the big one seems to have its lungs hanging out, which I have seen before on blood parrots, but they look slightly damaged.. It looks like parts of the red gills are white and perhaps infected?
(Had a really hard time capturing a picture of it, can't really see what I'm talking about in the pictures I attached)

Hello. This morning I woke up to find my blood parrot I've had for about 6 months dead. Last night before we went to bed, my husband commented on his color, how it was fading. He normally is a beautiful bright vibrant orange, and he had faded to a creamy white orange. Whistles, as I called him due to his puckered lips, has shown this sign never. Even in when cleaning the tank, adding new fish, etc. Could anyone please maybe help me with as to the cause of this death? May Whistles RIP..thanks.

Six months ago I inherited my two parrots,having had fish before but not parrots,I was a little lost,I came across this site and began to post what appears now to be rather stupid questions, however I received lots of help and advice, and all is as it should be.