Help with Blue Ram... please

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Jan 13, 2004
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Well this morning (2nd day) my female ram with the pink belly (seems a little swollen) is at the top of the tank breathing real hard. And at times she is at the bottom of tank. :sick:

The other ram is doing ok.

Tank:
10g heavily planted
Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
ph 6.5
Kh almost 0
gh 75ppm

I nevertheless changed 25% of the water.

Can anyone help please.
 
Almost 0 KH ???? you might want to look into that....I'm no good with all the ins and outs of KH, GH and PH and how all that works with or against each other, but an almost 0 KH sounds to me like it could be a problem somewhere. There are plenty of folks here who can help you out with that along with some research on your own.

What to do with your ram now, while you check into that......Perhaps remover her to a small tank of her own for now, that is heated. She may be getting overly stressed by the other ram. Make sure there is plenty of cover for her so she can feel safe.

If you have a hang on quarenteen tank that would work too, but I would put some live plants in it with her, just so she has something she feels she can hide in. You'd also want an airstone as well...that sits up near the surface of the water so that the current isn't too great in there. I notice the water in those little tanks swirls around a bit less when you place the airstone high.
 
There's something fishy with your parameters. Are you using ro/distilled water in that tank? How often are you doing water changes? How can you have 0 nitrates? There should always be some nitrate in an established tank. It's unavoidable. Is the ph truely 6.5 or is that where your test kit bottoms out?

I often see 0 kh and a low ph in peoples tanks that don't do frequent water changes (not saying that's you). This is always accompanied by a very high nitrate reading however.

The soft water and low ph really shouldn't bother the rams (if it's stable), but if all buffer (kh) has been exhausted from the system, then the ph could crash very quickly. Get back to us on your water source. If using straight ro/distilled, try cutting it with 25% tap water to add some buffering capacity to the system.
 
Well, I use the Jungle Labs Quick Dip Test strips.
And the lowest ph on it is 6.2 and the next is 6.8. By matching color, mine came to be somewhere in between, and so I believe my pH must be around 6.5pH.

About KH, the color shows up between 0 ppm and (i think 20 ppm) but I didnt use the same logic as above for quoting my KH.

As far as nitrates go, my test strip shows as 'safe' and so I quoted it as being 0. Wrong on my part. I just tested using the Liquid test and see that my Nitrates are around 5ppm

I have been doing weekly 10-15% water changes and the water parameters have stayed consistently as above for some time now.
The planted tank
-10g established about 3 weeks ago
-thickly planted around 60%-70% of tank from the start
-Stable water params as above.
-Plants are growing though not too fast.
-Light 2 plant gro fluorescent tubes of 13W each
-Filter with medium from established 55g tank
-Temp at 80F (last night I had reduced a bit to 78F; I have noticed tho that they like 80 better than even high 70s)

It sounded weird to me too for KH being always so low. But since its the same in my 55g with fish, I figured its atleast stable.
My main 55g tank also shows the same pH and KH but Nitrates are at 20 ppm.

Just as I left for work, I saw that the sick female ram is close to the bottom now, did move her position a few times. The other ram seems to be OK and eating and I have never seen her harrass the sick one. So I doubt it could be any bullying related stress.

Hmm :confused:
 
Hmmm......I'm going to create an acronym here BRS (Blue Ram Syndrome). Refers to the mysterious deaths that often occur with LFS rams. I can't tell you how many posts I've read (i've also experienced it first hand) of people who buy beautiful, seemingly healthy, blue rams only to have them die after a couple/few/several weeks. it always happens fast. Ram looks good on day 1. Day 2 it is breathing heavy in a corner. Day 3 it is listless. Day 4 it's dead. All parameter check out. No other fish affected. Hope you have better luck than I did. next time, find a local breeder and buy from them.
 
That BRS went thru my mind too :duh:

I also purchased TWICE nice/healthy/good looking rams from the LFS, they died on me a few weeks after :rant2: I gave up on them :mad:

They didn't seem to be sick, just didn't have the apetite to eat...I tried different foods, but i always lost them after a few weeks. Their tummy got more and more indented, and after a while they died :(

Maybe the problem comes from their adaptation ability :huh:

What do you think is their favorite food?
 
:sad: well my sick ram just passed away. BRS I guess. I stopped by my house at lunch and found it floating in the hornwort. However my other ram is doing ok...looked a lil pale, but ate well and had the same activity level as before.
I hope the second ram makes it.

The ram that died had a pronounced pink belly(female) but it was bulging too. The other ram does not have a pronounced belly. Do u think it might hv been parasites?
 
Sigh

:sad:
Thanks Emg and everybody who's helped me through this. As far as a postmortem, I dont have the heart to open up the poor fishie.

Well its 24+ hours since my one blue ram died. The other one is doing fine. Looks lonely to me. But she is eating well. Knockwood.

I will observe her for a few weeks, but what would you reccomend I can add to this 10g, another ram (male or female, any preferences?). Hopefully better stock comes in.

If not another ram, any other suggestions you like?
 
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