well, one of my rams died.

some disagree, but from experience and from others, these fish are soooo delicate, I went thru quite a few, I had ph of 6.5, low gh,kh, ideal conditions for these guys. Never ever had one last longer then 2 or 3 weeks, ever. My opinion, one of the hardest fish to acclimate and keep alive.

A few additional questions: how long has this tank been set up, what kind of substrate do you have in there, what are the current and former tankmates, what kind of filtration are you using, and what are the current filtration and substrate cleaning regimens you are following in addition to your water changes?

Well I have been lucky with mine so far. People say they are delicate which leads me to believe they are more suseptable to nitrates. I'd try bigger water changes (whatever it takes to get < 20ppm) and see if that helps. Over 20ppm is considered high and especially dangerous for more "delicate species" such as SA cichlids.

It sounds like maybe the change over damaged them. It can be hard to acclimate fish like these from one tank to another.

With a very low KH be careful doing water changes. I also have a low KH. My tap water has a much higher PH than my tank. I fill one gallon jugs and siphon each one through a small tube to allow more time to adjust.

Hi,
Sorry to hear about your Ram :sad
I’ve also added a pair of German Blue Rams recently. First day I’ve lost a female and immediately exchanged her for another. In a couple of days they laid eggs, next day the male was dead and female ate the eggs. After few days I’ve added a new male and the next day they spawned again. Actually it was just yesterday.
Keeping these fish is a real gambling, but I think that it is very important to provide them with an excellent water quality in order to be more successful.
Good luck,
F.

I would agree that larger water changes might help. Remember, if you are only changing 20% of the water, then 80% of the water is older than your last water change...the average "age" of the water in your tank might well be two months or more. You can work out the exact number, if you want to use the calculus that you took in high school (you just knew there would be a use for it someday!), but it probably isn't worth the effort, given that we can ballpark it pretty accurately.

Anyway, the other comment I would make is that the filter is kind of small for keeping such sensitive fish, and probably doesn't remove that much particulate waste. I would leave it on the tank, but also get an Aquaclear 200 with nothing but sponges, and then clean those out frequently (squeezing them clean in tank water when you change it).

I am no expert but I think you are underfiltered and overstocked. You already had at leat 8 inches of fish before you added the Rams to a 10 gallon aquarium. I use the penguin mini on a 10 gallon but I only have a single 1.5" figure-8 in it. I think that they may have been overstressed by the lack of space to move around and possibly water conditions. I bought 2 Blue Rams (Female and Male) three weeks ago and tossed them in my 29 gallon and have had no issues at all. They have places to hide and get away from others and move around freely when they choose. They are some good looking fish and they have a wonderful personality.