Blue Ram Is Dying.

[Fc1700]

He looked ok earlier today, but a little sick as he wasnt moving much. Did a water change (took out a little more than usual 40%), thought it would help but it seemed to just stress him out worse to the point of almost dying. (Should of thought of that

).
 
Now , he is doing a lot of laying around looks almost dead, or "drunken" swimming upside down, spinning rapidly around tank. I dont have a sick tank I'm still new to this, its my only one. (10 gallon) he's been in the tank about 3 months.
 
I know at this point there's probably not much I can do ( I would take him to the fish store I bought him at but they are closed until tomorrow).
 
I dont think he will make it through the night, but in case he does is there anything that could help him? Should I just take him out, will this behavior stress the other fish?
 
Also advice on how exactly I should be cleaning my tank. (I've tried siphoning a few times but it doesn't seem to get as much guck out of the gravel as I would like. so I've mostly been doing 30-40% changes once/twice a week.)
 
I feed them  sparingly (every 3 days or so) with flakes or blood worms trying not to mess the gravel much, but obviously what I'm doing isn't working.
 
I've also never changed my filter since cycling since I've heard taking out the wrong one is either unnecessary or can mess up the natural cycle.
 
Thanks in advance. =/

 

[Fc1700]

Also if anyone is going to comment and can help me with the maintenance of my tank, I would appreciate it being non-condescending and straight forward with what I should do. There is so much contradictory advice given from fish owner to fish owner from fish shop to fish shop.
 
Thanks.

 

[BerryAttack]

first when a sick fish, put the stats of the water. if you don't know then you can get it tested at the petshop.
most likely the fish wont make it. this can be because of the water quality and IMO i feel the rams will grow to large for a ten gallon. 
are you treating the water before doing the water change? with something that will affect the chlorine to make it safer for the fish? if not then that can be the reason, also what is the quality of your water?
with gravel you use a gravel vacuum all around the gravel, if there isn't much waste then just do the water change, my one non-live plant tank hardly has anything in the gravel.. i just to a larger water change
 
now with your filter not being changed, it should be changed once a month or when the filter media is dirty.. you'll know once you know what to look for.. what kind of filter, if a hang on you switch the filter floss media and pop in a new one, if external you rinse the sponge(s) with the aquarium water when doing the water change, change filter floss and boom your done. the thing with filters is that you don't want untreated tap water to touch them.. it'll kill all the good bacteria you need to keep you water stable.
 
if you have not treated the water, go to the petshop, get chlorine treatment and treat the whole tank. it might help your fish, and also change the filter media for a fresh one or clean one.
what other fish you have in there?
leave the fish, turn off the light to limit stress. 
is he skinny? swimming around with no control can be a swim bladder issue.
are you over feeding your fish? do they look nice and fat, if so stop feeding for a few days, and limit the amount of food you are giving them at feeding time, you don't want to over feed fish, it'll cause a lot of issues.

 

[Fc1700]

I unfortunately (even though I thought I had way more) ran out of my test strips. So im going to take water sample into fish store tomorrow.
 
I've always treated the new water I put in with StressCoat.
 
I use this kind of filter.
 
http/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=12302632
 
Should I replace that cartridge and leave the spongy material?

 

[hobby5]

Welcome to the TFF. Sorry to hear of your problem. As soon as a fish starts swimming upside down there is nothing you can do for it, except killing it quickly. Adding to the good advice by Berry. Imho there is no rule how often to change your filter media. This always depends on the tank and filter size and type, dirt level etc. It can be every week for one and once a year for some other. Usually, you would check the flow rate and if it goes down too much, its an indication to clean the filter.
 
I found the post about your tank stoking and honsetly keeping fish is not like collecting stamps. A 10G tank is for a single species, rarely for two, but that is it.