German Blue Ram Help

[ReddSamurai]

I bought 2 German blue rams over a month ago and they were fine so i bought another 2 over 2 weeks ago.
over the past week the 2 they i got most recently have died and the other 2 appear to have some kind of fungus i would assume, they both have patches of a almost white/grey sheen on them which you can only see from certain angles.
one of them it looks like its peeling off, any help is much appreciated. 

 

[fluttermoth]

Have you tested your water at all (and if so, what were the results), and what temp are you keeping the tank at?

 

[ReddSamurai]

Havnt tested it for a while but will do soon, but the temperature is about 26/27 Celsius 

 

[fluttermoth]

Tests would help; GBR are a very delicate, sensitive fish.
 
Raising the temp might help; rams do best at around 28°C, assuming your other fish can take those kinds of temperatures.
 
P.S; you don't need to click the 'report' button; that's for alerting us moderators to spam or posts that break the rules

 

[ReddSamurai]

yea was an accident thought it said reply lol...im half asleep at the moment...sorry.
 
yea i did have the temperature at 28C but from what i heard pearl gourmai's prefer 26/27C  correct me if im wrong 

 

[fluttermoth]

No, you're right. It's one of the problems with keeping rams in a general community tank; one or other of your species is likely to suffer, unless you've specifically chosen tankmates that can withstand the higher temperatures that rams prefer.
 
Having said that, soft, acidic water that's low in nitrate and zero at all times for ammonia and nitrite is more important that the temp; many people do keep their rams sucessfully at 26/27°C

 

[ReddSamurai]

ill test the water when i go into work later, if theres nothing wrong with the water would you recommend using something like pimafix?

 

[attibones]

I wonder if the recently purchased rams brought something into the water? Are there any other recent additions to the tank?

 

[ReddSamurai]

nope the last fish i got were the 2 rams that died, been trying to get a decent photo to show but its a nightmare. got a couple which i will upload soon. im pretty sure its some sort of fungus because they are eating the bloodworm and flakes "confidently" if that makes sense

 

[fluttermoth]

The thing about the most common fish diseases (fungus, fin rot, ich) is that usually (there are always exceptions in fishkeeping!) the fish is already unhealthy or unhappy for some other reason. That stress weakens the fish, thins it's slime coat and allows to develop infections and diseases that a healthy fish would be able to fight off.
 
It may well be that your rams have fungus, but the likelyhood is, if you just treat for that, without finding the underlying factors, they'll just continue to reoccur.
 
But, as I said earlier, rams are a notoriously difficult fish, and with the mass breeding of them in the Far East in recent years (including hormone injections, both to get them to spawn and to colour up at a smaller size) they are only getting harder to keep. I've given up on them in the last couple of years, even though they're my most favourite fish,and my tap water should be perfect for them; I know people who discus in our tap water!

 

[ReddSamurai]

yea i understand that completely, i just tested my water and nitrite, nitrate and ammonia are 0 and ph 7.4. ive decided use Melafix for a week and then Pimafix the week after and see what happens.