Blue Ram Just Died I Think!?

[Fraoch]

I havent been on here in ages because everything was going fine with my tanks. I was just feeding the fish some frozen food and my blue ram, out of nowhere, flipped in the water and floated to the surface. Within seconds hes was dead. Or at least i think he is, i cant see his gills moving but ive seperated him. There were no signs whatsoever that there was anything wrong with him till then or any of the other fish. Today i did a water change since one filter has stopped working and the ammonia was between 0-0.25ppm and the nitrates were going up. But ive had the rams for a few months now and he suddenly dies within seconds of looking healthy?

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Temperature of the tank?

 

[Fraoch]

About 81.5F, i've turned it down a bit

 

[crazyforcordoras]

No it needs to be that high. Just makin sure, that is the #1 reason most GBRs die.

 

[onidrase]

Blue rams are finicky and prone to dying for no apparent reason. They are well known for acting perfectly healthy and happy and being dead in the corner moments later. Perimeters need to be warm, soft, and acidic. It's not unlikely that the german blue ram had some bad genetics either, sometimes they're really weak due to lack of care in the breeding process.

 

[Fraoch]

Ok thank you, ill keep the temperature up. The water is soft and acidic, our tap water is soft and acidic so i dont think it was that. My female looks healthy so ill just keep her for now and maybe not buy another ram!

 

[Livewire88]

Was the food you fed him fully defrosted? sounds like he may have ingested food still partly frozen causing him to die.

 

[Fraoch]

ohh no, i cant be sure! i left it in a warm place for about half an hour and it looked all defrosted but i dont know for sure!

 

[Yanks15]

Can someone please give "perfect" water specs for these guys? Temp, pH, GH, KH, etc. I've been interested in keeping them.


Thanks,
Steve