just lost a ram

[Lauren]

I bought two, young and healthy gold rams about a month ago. They were getting along fine in my 20g community tank. One was more colorful than the other, and I was afraid that he may take a dominant roll and possibly stress or hurt my other ram.

Well, tonight, I found my more colorful ram dead at the bottom of the tank. I quickly netted him and checked my parameters. Ammonia- 0 nitrite- 0 PH is still steady at 7 and GH is at 5. Temp is a constant 82. The other fish look healthy, including my other ram.

I’m some what baffled at why he died, he wasn’t showing any signs of sickness or stress. I’m also pretty upset. I’ve been wanting rams for a while now, and I finally thought that I was ready to take care of them when this happens. I’ll get more RO water tomorrow and do a water change, then give it a while. If I can keep my other ram alive, maybe I’ll get a female and have a proper pair.

:sad

 

[blitzen25bm]

that sucks, im sorry. im sure it wasnt your fault. how big was he becuse they do have very short lifespans.

 

[snakeskinner]

sounds similar to my experience. I bought a single gold male that was a little over an inch long and he seemed to be doing fine. He ended up in my 55 gallon community tank with lots of tetras, mollies, etc. and had really taken to an orange male lyretail molly and after a week or so he was actually swimming with my mollies and eating topwater. One day with no reason I could find, he was hiding under a clump of plants and would not eat. the next day he was nowhere to be found but after some digging I found him burried in another clump of plants. No damage to his body at all. I have no idea what happened other than I have a slightly high PH and hard water but he was doing great for a week or more. I think I'll stay away from Rams for a while until I get more skilled at water control. I can't seem to get my PH to drop and don't have the money for a RO system yet. I have a small bag of Peat I got with a group of aquarium supplies but I don't want to lower the PH on a tank now just to have it go back up with the next water change. I can use Distilled water on my 10 gallons when I do partial water changes but it's hard to do on my larger tanks. My LFS tried to help me lower it with buffers but I never saw a change. Kyle

 

[Turin Turambar]

Hold on, don't blame yourself - you couldn't do anything to save him. Almost all Rams seem to have some internal bacterial/parasite infection. I read that on the Krib site.
That is the main cause why they "disappear" with no reason.

I understand how you feel, because I lost a Ram just few days ago... he was in my tank for 1,5 years and was a true pet (typical cichlid-like). :sad

 

[Lauren]

I only had him for about a month, plus the 2 or 3 weeks he spent at the fish store. He was still just a baby, not even an inch long. I'll keep an eye on the other one, maybe this ram was just unlucky.