Help! Dying Bolivian Rams

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Fishy101

AC Members
Mar 16, 2007
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This is my first tank, and I'm having a problem with 4 Bolivian Rams I bought 2 months ago. Within a couple of days, I had to take one back, because it had a white string hanging from it's anus. For the past 3 weeks, 2 of the rams had a long, white, thick strings hanging from them. Not clear, but very thick and opaque. They both stopped eating and hung out above the heater facing away from the front of tank. One died last week, the other this last Sunday. About a 2 weeks before that, I tried 2 doses Jungle Parasite (over 4 days), and then soaking bloodworms in metro dissolved in water overnight, then feeding that to them for four days. They died anyway. Now the 3rd fish is hiding in his cave and not coming out to eat. Is there anything else I can try? Is the Ph of my water just too high for rams?

Thanks for any input

*------------------------------*
29G
Penguin 200 Filter
2 Pearl Gouramis, 2 Bolivian Rams
Ammonia: 0, Nitrites: 0, Nitrates:4-10, PH: 7.8-8.0
 
White stringy poo doesn't sound like a pH problem. My rams are doing well in 7.6 - 7.8

Have you been checking for ammonia and nitrites this whole time? I see your readings at your signature, but rams are extremely sensitive to nitrogen compounds so if you cycled your tank with them they probably wouldn't make it.

Sometimes white stringy poo is a result of not eating and their intestines start excreting slimy stuff... but it is usually clear and not thick.

Hmm. How bad to you want to save this fish? I can recommend another medicine - flubendazole or its sister fenbendazole. These are for chronic wasting diseases caused by internal protozoa, etc. The place to order it in the US is here.... http://inkmkr.com/Fish/ scroll down to see the medicine on the left.

I hate to say this, but after pulling out all the stops to save a fish over the years, I've not had much luck once they get to this point. Clean water, stress free lives are usually the best medicine but your's sounds like they came in with massive internal issues and I don't know if your remaining one is savable.

I hope something works out though!
Cathy
 
Thanks for the response, Cathy. I did fishless cycling, and put the gouramis in a few days before to make sure the cycle was done. I've heard rams are sensitive to water parameters. The male gourami does chase the rams around especially right before and after feeding. Could that be stressing them too much?

I'll try the medicine. I would like to try to save the fish. I hate to be a bad owner after only 2 months! The rams are great..way more personality than the gouramis. I wouldn't want to pollute the water with too many meds, though.
 
My fire dwarf gourami nipped, shredded fins, and stressed my German blue ram male. I relocated the gourami back to the store and life is much better.

PS What about a 2.5 or 5g hospital tank with a heater and an airstone.. You could medicate your rams in there or keep the gouramis in the smaller tank until your rams get better. And, by the way, my Ph is 8.0 and my rams have been healthy for three months. I'll soon be slowly adding some R/O (lowers Ph) for breeding purpuses.
 
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white stingy poo is associated with a couple things..bacterial internl digestive infection and parasite. commonly camillanus and capillaria. if these fish came from a lfs, many use large sump filtrations linking similar species to the sump with different tanks.

possible this may have transferred . fenbendazole and flubenzadole are similar worming meds used by veterinarians and used to treat livestock as is levamisole hcl.

they are efective meds I believe that fenbenzadole will kill the eggs.

the problem with metro and prazi..it does not work well on these two parasites. you may be able to get these either at a feed store or veterinarian.
 
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