Blue Rams

[MrD84]

Afternoon,

Wondering if anyone could explain the following.

I placed 2 Blue Rams in my community tank back in November last year and unfortunately I lost one as it got stuck in a piece of bog wood. The one I had left was doing very well with bright blue colours.

In December I placed another 4 smaller rams in. All have been doing very well together with one of them being the brightest and more dominant. Over the last couple of days, I have noticed the original first Ram has been sitting towards the bottom of the tank in hiding and looking rather grey and sorry for himself.

Any ideas?

 

[ZoddyZod]

what are your tank stats for ammonia, nitrite, pH and water hardness and temperature?

blue rams are notoriously picky about their water conditions.

 

[MrD84]

what are your tank stats for ammonia, nitrite, pH and water hardness and temperature?

blue rams are notoriously picky about their water conditions.

To be honest I have yet to test my conditions as I didnt think this would be the issue due to the other 4 rams being completely fine.

 

[fluttermoth]

It's always a good idea to test; like any living creature, some fish will always be more sensitive than others.

How big is your tank?

 

[MrD84]

It's always a good idea to test; like any living creature, some fish will always be more sensitive than others.

How big is your tank?

Yeah think I may do and also carry out a water test this weekend just to be on the safe side.

My tank is 260 litres.

 

[fluttermoth]

Ok, there should be enough room then, although rams are territorial, so bullying might be the problem; these things often don't start immediately after adding the new fish, only when they have settled in or reached sexual maturity.

But without a full set of water stats it's very hard to pinpoint what the problem might be; the sooner you can do that the better; as Zoddy says, rams are quite demanding as to water conditions; especially hardness and nitrates, IME.

Also, if you don't have your own test kits, and are going to your LFS to have it tested for you, please, please write down the actual numbers; don't let the shop fob you off with 'it's fine', or 'a bit high', as that's of no use to us whatsoever!