3/4 Of My Bolivian Rams Have Died In The Past Week, Last One Looks Lik

thorn1414

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All of water levels are fine, ph=6.8, ammonia=0, nitrite=0, nitrate=5. 3 out of my 4 bolivian rams have died in the past week, don't know why. The last one looks like it has the same symptoms and will pas soon too probably. The symptoms are just a huge decrease in activity, loss of color, and breathing heavily. None of my other tankmates are attacking them. Tankmates include blue rams, veil angelfish, glow light tetras, blue platies, neon swordtails, a pleco, red fire dwarf gourami, and some crystal red shrimp
 
how big is your tank
how long has your tank been set up
depending on how big your tank is... you are probably over stocked.
attach pictures
how long did you cycle the tank before adding fish
 
add details!
 
BerryAttack said:
how big is your tank
how long has your tank been set up
depending on how big your tank is... you are probably over stocked.
attach pictures
how long did you cycle the tank before adding fish
 
add details!
65 gallons, since march. All of my fish are still very small, so I don't think I'm overstocked quite yet- 5 blue platys, 3 neon swordtails, 3 blue rams, 2 red fire dwarf gourami, 5 glow light tetra, 1 pleco, 4 veil angels, 1 bolivian ram
 
My my. Too many cichlids in an SA tank. So the problem might be ich. Or diseases. Did he have white spots or blotches?
 
DerpPH said:
My my. Too many cichlids in an SA tank. So the problem might be ich. Or diseases. Did he have white spots or blotches?
They are all very small, so it's really not that many. It wasn't ich. It was internal parasites, during the last hours I noticed the white poop, so that's what gave it away. Sadly I couldn't save him :(
 
White poop is quite often internal bacterial infection too. When it's parasites, the fish flashing/scratching themselves is the most sure sign. What's the temperature of the tank?
 
your tank has been up for around 5 months. how long did you cycle the tank or did you put it up and start putting fish in?
 
because it probably is an internal parasite, get pellets and soak them in internal parasite med and feed to fish. tank if large so just adding in the solution will be making you around a whole bottle a day.
 
even though you say that the fish are small, you have to think in the long run. they will grow quickly and when they become sexually mature it can turn bad. 
i would say that when the fish are healthy, start to rehome some of them.
the pleco (depending on the breed) some will get around 2 feet. i personally think they are too messy and don't recommend them.. 
the angels will become large, and most likely you'll get a pair out out of them, if so rehome the other two if aggression becomes too much.
 
BerryAttack said:
your tank has been up for around 5 months. how long did you cycle the tank or did you put it up and start putting fish in?
 
because it probably is an internal parasite, get pellets and soak them in internal parasite med and feed to fish. tank if large so just adding in the solution will be making you around a whole bottle a day.
 
even though you say that the fish are small, you have to think in the long run. they will grow quickly and when they become sexually mature it can turn bad. 
i would say that when the fish are healthy, start to rehome some of them.
the pleco (depending on the breed) some will get around 2 feet. i personally think they are too messy and don't recommend them.. 
the angels will become large, and most likely you'll get a pair out out of them, if so rehome the other two if aggression becomes too much.
I did an instant cycle with old tank media. I'm currently soaking bloodworms in general cure+tank water and then feeding. I am rehoming my platies and swordtails, the rest can stay in the tank, it's huge.
 
I can only offer unfelpful info based on the vid. Your angel reminds me of an experience a couple of years ago with imported Altums. It was a batch from the Rio Atabapo which required great effort to get to an importer in Texas. I realize that wild Altums and tank raised angels are worlds apart in many respects, but it was the manner of deaths that was not so different. The disease showed no external symptoms. No marks, no visible parasites or worms, no columnaris etc. Externally the fish remained looking normal right up to when they died.
 
The initial sign was a fish would become withdrawn from the group. It would tend to hang near the bottom for some time. Then it began to hang near the surface near filter flow and finally it went vertical with its mouth up. At this point it would be quite lethargic and soon after would die. These fish went into tanks tanks of several angel people on the same forum. In the end out of well over 100 fish sent out, one or two survived,
 
We all tried a variety of medications to no avail. We never got a handle on what it was. Presumably the fish were treated for internal parasites by the importer prior to the fish leaving their facility. I tried antibiotics on my 22 fish with no luck, they were all dead in under 3 weeks of arriving. I wish I had something better to offer.
 
TwoTankAmin said:
I can only offer unfelpful info based on the vid. Your angel reminds me of an experience a couple of years ago with imported Altums. It was a batch from the Rio Atabapo which required great effort to get to an importer in Texas. I realize that wild Altums and tank raised angels are worlds apart in many respects, but it was the manner of deaths that was not so different. The disease showed no external symptoms. No marks, no visible parasites or worms, no columnaris etc. Externally the fish remained looking normal right up to when they died.
 
The initial sign was a fish would become withdrawn from the group. It would tend to hang near the bottom for some time. Then it began to hang near the surface near filter flow and finally it went vertical with its mouth up. At this point it would be quite lethargic and soon after would die. These fish went into tanks tanks of several angel people on the same forum. In the end out of well over 100 fish sent out, one or two survived,
 
We all tried a variety of medications to no avail. We never got a handle on what it was. Presumably the fish were treated for internal parasites by the importer prior to the fish leaving their facility. I tried antibiotics on my 22 fish with no luck, they were all dead in under 3 weeks of arriving. I wish I had something better to offer.
That sounds like the exact issue that I just had with the angel, but this was the 7th fish that died, maybe the first angel caused the rest of the issues
 
bump- Down to 3 blue rams, 3 viel angels, 5 glow light tetras, 2 swordtails, 2 gourami, 1 pleco, I'm losing one fish a day, 75% of them died at night
 

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