GBR Sudden Death

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bradleyp

AC Members
Feb 8, 2011
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My German Blue Ram just died suddenly and I have no idea what might have caused it. At last night's feeding, he seemed perfectly normal. I did my regular WC this morning and again, he was acting perfectly normal. Less than 2 hours after the WC, I came in and found him lying on the bottom of the tank dead. All my water parameters are where they should be. No sudden changes in anything. All other tank mates appear perfectly normal. I know they aren't quite as hardy as some other fish in the hobby, but to see one die so suddenly is quite the puzzle.

Any ideas out there as to what could possibly cause this?
 
No ideas on the cause, but i have had this happen with a pair i bought from a questionable source. Everything was fine for the fist month or two, then one day the male was swimming in vertical circles and just dropped dead. A couple of days later the female did the same thing. Just lost a apisto myself this morning that until a couple of days ago was doing fine, and none of the others in the tank are showing any signs of problems. Sometimes its just one of life's mysteries i guess.
 
What were the water params?
Did you treat the new water?
Was the new water from the same source you always use?
Has anything changed with the source water?
 
TabisFish said:
You must not have gotten locally bred species
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What does that have to do with the death?


But like you said Bradleyp, they aren't the hardiest of fish. Who knows what really happened. I'm going to guess it had something to do with your water change though. What kind of water do you use? City, well, ect.. Maybe you did something different this water change that you normally don't do? Did you change out more water than usual, or was the temp different?
 
Well locally bred species don't just randomly die, opposed to imported
 
TabisFish said:
Well locally bred species don't just randomly die, opposed to imported
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They can just randomly die, just seems less likely if they have been kept in similar water conditions. I will agree that if you can find them locally normally you will have better luck though.
 
Sorry to hear. I ordered three from a good domestic breeder a couple of weeks ago. One was DOA, another was barely alive and didn't last the night. The third was in great shape, swimming around and eating. He lasted about four days. Cute little fish, but too delicate for me.
 
In my experience, German Rams can go from healthy to dead in a matter of hours, without any apparent precipitating event. I had one recently die on me, after being happy for six months. I have absolutely no idea what could have caused the death. The water quality was excellent and there were no sudden changes in the parameters.

Even more recently, I bought a pair from a local breeder, and they seem to be doing well three weeks later, but that could change at any time. They are very delicate fish.
 
Ballyhoo said:
What were the water params?
Did you treat the new water?
Was the new water from the same source you always use?
Has anything changed with the source water?
Click to expand...

Parameters were/are:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate <20
ph 6.6
Temp 80

New water treated with Prime. Same source water as usual. Identical routine I always follow in WCs. Made sure new water temp matched the temp of the tank.

My source water is from the municipal supply and I do not know of anything that has changed with it.
 
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