German Blue ram died, why ????

[MammaKitty]

I brought home a pair of rams 18 days ago. They were doing great for 14 days and on day 15 when I woke up to feed them breakfast 1 of them was hiding in the floating plants, he would not come out to eat which was not like him all day he was having these symtoms,

Heavy breathing, Stops eating, Discoloration(he was much darker) Gasping at the water surface.
(water was ok i did test)

When I got up the next day he was the same so I called the fish store I got them from, they said mabey he had somthing internal going on. They told me to start treating with Kanamycin which I have so when I got off the phone I proceeded to get the meds and all of the sudden he started to swim erraticly for about 2 minutes like he could not breath (neither could I watching him with tears in my eyes) then he just fell to the bottom and died. WHY???
Water perameters are, still

Ammonia- 0 , Nitrate - 30-40 , Nitrite - 0 , PH - 8.0

I want to make sure this does not happen to my other fish and kill my whole tank if it is going to infect everyone. Has anyone ever had this situation?

 

[jimbooo]

yep had the same thing happen to me.

40 Gallon, H2O perfect. rams died in 2 days.

i put it down to my Very hard water. Rams like soft water and are quite sensitive. Not sure what your waters like over there but just a thought.

 

[keane]

Hi MammaKitty ,

Sorry to hear about your German Blue .

Unfortunately, they seem just to be "senstive" fish and can pass away at any time without any particular reason.

That said, I put a pair in my community tank just a week or so after it had cycled and I have had absolutely no problems (touch wood!). I made no special adjustments to my water parameters etc to "help" them and they have been fine.

They have even spawned twice (but not yet learned that they are not supposed to eat the eggs!! )

Don't be disheartened. If your water parameters are ok then the rest of your fish should be fine .

All I would say though is, make sure you get your surviving Ram another partner. They so much prefer to be in pairs and, if left alone your "lady" will not be happy, probably stop eating herself, and may end up the same way as "Sir" did .

hope this helps.

steve 8)

 

[MammaKitty]

Thanks guys for the reply, I did just get off the phone with the lfs to track down another mate so mine does not get lonley. I think the lfs sold me 2 males I would like to make sure that I get him or her a mate(opposite sex) now i need to figure out how to tell them apart. Yah no I paid $30.00 for the pair and they could not even make sure that I had a male and female(im a little ticked off) I guess if you want it done right do it yourself. I am switching lfs not happy with the 1 ive been going to. If they make you buy pairs the least they could do is be able to tell them apart, now Im just rambling. My water is fine so I quess I need to just get another so my 1 does not get lonley. Thanks for your time.

 

[Wolfdog]

same exact thing happened to me too

 

[MammaKitty]

what were your water perameters ? wolfdog

 

[Colin_BC]

As for looking for a pair, the females will usually have a pinkish/purple belly (kind of like a female kribensis). Regarding the unfortunate demise of your Ram, I'd have to agree with everyone else here. Because of massive inbreeding for the spectacular colours, blue rams are a very weak and vulnerable fish. Majority of the blue rams I've purchased have all died within a few weeks of coming home with good water param's. After this I took some time away from attempting to keep blue rams. I talked to my most trusted LFS owner and asked him why I haven't seen any Rams at his place in over a year. He said majority of the ones coming from the suppliers (assuming fish farms) are too weak. He said if he could get some reliable healthy specimens he's definately sell them. After that comment I decided it was time to try Blue Rams again. When I had the nerve to come back to blue rams, I tried to make a point to be very picky about what Rams I bought. I went to several different stores before settling on one that sold very healthy looking and active "large show rams." Truth be told, this store has had the healthiest fish of any I've seen so far. A couple pairs were attempting to spawn in the store tank. All the rams I "hand picked" are still doing quite well, although no "successful" breeding attempts yet.

Rams are some of the nicest looking fish around, particularly in a planted community tank. You just have to be patient when buying them.

Colin

 

[MammaKitty]

Thank you for your reply Colin. I was looking for a couple of months at some lfs's for my Rams and finnally came across the 2 that i bought they were mature and beautiful, colorful the store had 3 different sizes all priced different $20pair, $25pair and $30pair I bought the ones that were 30 and they truly were the heathiest that Ive seen but I guess something went wrong Im not sure what but the 1 is still doing really good. I hope to get 1 or 2 more and give it a try. I am not real concerned with the breeding I just want them to have friends. Thank you very much, Shannon