German Blue Ram

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kribensis12

I know where you live
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So, I picked up a female German Blue Ram from Petsmart today (they have recently started carrying harder to find cichlids). I have a high pH. They have a high pH. So, I am assuming that she should be fine. They said the pH they come in is similar to what mine is, so it's not like she came from 7.0 water. I am drip acclimating her atm, and I am going to have plenty of hiding places for her. Is there anything I should do? Last GBR I had died, and I'd rather not lose this one too. If she makes it past the warranty, and still looks good, I will purchase a male.
 
pH isn't so important for rams anyway. Softness is more improtant, but what is really, really vital is clean, warm water. You need to keep your nitrates as low as you can; below 30ppm if possible, and your temp needs to be around 28°C/82°F Lots of bogwood and plants will help too.
 
Personally I've kept GBR's healthy and happy in a pH of between 8.0 - 8.2 and a temp of 24 but the key is water quality. If you can keep it up, at least 30% every 3-4 days was what I kept my GBR's in when the pic in my avatar was taken. When I switched from 25-30% weekly to 30% every 3-4 days I noticed an almost immediate improvement in colouration and stress levels.
 
I do weekly 25 percent water changes (with gravel cleaning as well). I am a senior in Highschool and I also work 25 hours a week and don't even have time for homework, so w/c every 3-4 days is impossible. My nitrates rarely go over 25ppm. The water is at 80 degree's. I can't keep plants alive. I do have a little bit of bogwood in there and some rock work. My kH and gH are so high that my liquid test kit wont even read it. We use water softening salt in our water.
 
We use water softening salt in our water.

You don't use that water in the tank, do you? :crazy: I really hope not as it's totally unsuitable for fish, especially rams. If you are using the treated water in your tank, you must stop right away; it'll kill your ram very quickly.

Have you thought about RO water? It's pretty cheap from most LFS these days. How big is your tank?
 
From what I've been told by my parents, no. I am assuming that this is correct being as i've bred Kribs, Firemouths, Jewels ect. in this water and have never experienced a problem. I think someone addressed this before. Our water softening unit only softens water that we get from faucets indoors. I used a spigot from outside. I probably should have mentioned this earlier. I at one time used a R/O unit , but the even after the water in my tank being 75 percent R/O the pH was still 8.2. So, I sold the unit to John (Tolak) , as he lives near me.
 
I'm fearing the worst. After drip acclimating, and releasing her, she hasn't moved more thank 10 inches from where she swam when I placed her in yesterday. She is just sitting there. She shows no sign of illness. She has some color. She is not breathing heavily. No other indicators of not feeling to hot other than not swimming around. I tried feeding some Sprinula/ Garlic flake in hopes that the gralic would entice her. No response at all. I'm thinking it's stress. Part of me is thinking about putting a little aspirin in the water in hopes to perk her up, but I feel that she may be to far gone.
 
I'm fearing the worst. After drip acclimating, and releasing her, she hasn't moved more thank 10 inches from where she swam when I placed her in yesterday. She is just sitting there. She shows no sign of illness. She has some color. She is not breathing heavily. No other indicators of not feeling to hot other than not swimming around. I tried feeding some Sprinula/ Garlic flake in hopes that the gralic would entice her. No response at all. I'm thinking it's stress. Part of me is thinking about putting a little aspirin in the water in hopes to perk her up, but I feel that she may be to far gone.

If your hardness is so high that you can't even measure it, I doubt you'll have much luck with GBRs.

Even if you have the correct water for them, they are hard to keep alive due to poor quality fish from fish farms.

It may be stress. My Bolivian ram often stays still for a while when the lights first come on, and I fear the worst. Hope your fish is ok
 
She has finally started to move around a little bit, after 2 days. She has more color. I'm hoping she make a nice turn-around.
 
She is definitely doing better. Not 100 percent back to what she should be, but showing big signs of improvement. Maybe it was just stress.
 
Well, I came back from the Wisconsin Dells (spring break) and she is doing fine. Last night I purchased her a male (I believe it is a male). They have hit it off. She was shaking her body and displaying to him the second he was in the tank. Now he has disappeared... The female is still around though, with a tiny, tiny piece of her top fin absent, so I'm assuming that they were pairing over night. I will get a video up of them as soon as they both decide to show themselves at the same time.
 
So, they have been hiding too much to take a video, BUT:

Her breeding tube was down yesteday and she and the male are hiding behind some rock work and I think they may have laid eggs but I can't see from where my vantage point is.
 
Well, there were no eggs. I came home today to find her dead. No sign of stress or being beaten up. Just dead. So I have replaced her. I hope things go better the second time around!
 
In the UK petsmart is a serious no no, when I first started out and there weren't many forums around anything I bought from petsmart either died or brought a nice disease into my tank which killed everything else in it. Don't you have any LFS's that are not a petsmart? Dunno if it applies in the states but over here I steer clear.
 
In the UK petsmart is a serious no no, when I first started out and there weren't many forums around anything I bought from petsmart either died or brought a nice disease into my tank which killed everything else in it. Don't you have any LFS's that are not a petsmart? Dunno if it applies in the states but over here I steer clear.

Do we have petsmart in the uk? If you mean pets at home, then it varies from shop to shop. I've bought about half my fish from there, and not lost one! The LFS seem to be worse around here
 

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