Overnight Blue Ram death with no warning?

M

msquared

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Jan 31, 2008
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St. Charles, Missouri
Two weeks ago I bought female Blue Ram at an LFS. She was maybe 1.25" overall length, so still pretty young. She also seemed very healthy, and seemed to have natural markings and coloration, so I thought likely she had not been pumped full of hormones. I acclimated her for an hour with partial water changes in the bag, and then netted her into the tank. She has been an ideal fish for those two weeks: playful, active, curious, meeting us at the glass and even nibbling fingers, not aggressive to other tankmates, and healthy appetite. She has never been picked on by her tankmates that I've seen, and never showed any damage from unseen attacks. So last night I fed the fish, and as usual I watched them eat and watched her in particular, just because she's very interesting. Everyone seemed to be doing very well, and acting completely normal and with no signs of disease or distress, and she in particular. This morning, she was dead.

The tank is a 20g with HOB filter, has been fully cycled for about two months. Tankmates are 4 Peppered Cory, 4 male guppies, and 7 Cardinal Tetras. Water parameters have remained extremely stable at 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrites, 10-15ppm nitrates (tap water baselines at 10ppm), pH 6.8, and temp 77*F. No other fish show any problems at all.

Anyone have any thoughts about what might have gone wrong? I would like to buy another Ram, and I know they are somewhat delicate. But I would have expected some warning before she died. I just want to make sure I'm in good shape buy her replacement.
 
your water chem looks great, better nitrates than me even after a water change. i have been hearing and reading that rams are getting to be as bad as discus used to be when it comes to care. HTH.
 
You know, I was concerned as I stocked up to this level that nitrates might get hard to manage, especially given my tap water readings. But so far they haven't. I did add some Java Moss the say day I added the Ram, as an experiment to see if it could help keep nitrates in check. That may well be part of the reason for the good readings.

Unless I hear of a good reason not to, I will probably try another Ram at least once more. The one I had was really a good community fish and was fun to watch.
 
the temp is a bit on the cool side for blue rams..they do better in warmer water usually no lower than 82f.
I would suggest, if you want Blue rams, to find a local supplier visit a local fish club and see what is out.
Blue rams are usually not hard to keep. but tend to do best in water similar to settings like discus.
could be you just got a weka fish.
have you considered Quarantine?
 
star_rider said:
the temp is a bit on the cool side for blue rams..they do better in warmer water usually no lower than 82f.
I would suggest, if you want Blue rams, to find a local supplier visit a local fish club and see what is out.
Blue rams are usually not hard to keep. but tend to do best in water similar to settings like discus.
could be you just got a weka fish.
have you considered Quarantine?
Click to expand...
I was hoping to straddle the temp preferences of the Ram vs the Cories (they are supposed to like cooler). I didn't realize the Rams like it that warm, though - most published "specs" call for a lower range of 76ish. That could be an issue, and I'll need to do more research. It's certainly possible I got a weak fish. It just didn't seem to be one for the two weeks we had her alive - she was always vibrant and bold, always active, didn't hide. All the way through last night, there was never a sign of any distress at all. That's the part that seems strange to me.
 
usually not best to 'straddle' the temp ranges..but best if you keep it mid level of the temp range.
this is especially true of some species (Discus, Rams etc) that may exhibit stress when at the cooler end of the spectrum. 77 is definitely a bit cool.. anything below 80 for blues is a bit cool.
you may want to find a cory species that can handle the warrmer temps better.
 
Okay, I'll be looking into this more. The cories survived treatment for ich a while back at 85*F, but I'm not sure if these will do well for the long term at that temp. I'll check more into what temps the cories can handle safely - if they can't accomodate the Ram's requirements then I probably need to not get another Ram. But this is exactly why I started this thread - to know whether to try again or not.

As an alternative, what are the preferred temps of Bolivian Rams? Or is there any other smaller cichlid that is not aggressive toward tankmates and would tolerate temps closer to 76-77*F?
 
Bolivians do well in a lower range of temp compared to that of the Blue.
I keep mine at 77-80 but many keep them at 78 and a bit lower.

I personally find they color up better at low 80's but they are fine at 77-78.

you may also look into Albino corydora as they tend to do fine witht ehupper 70's to around 80.

I keep a school of them at 78-80(thanks Pink..they are doing great)
 
I have c.aeneus in my tank with rams and run the tank at 80-81 with good results.
 
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