Golden Head German Blue Rams - WTF

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RIngrey

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Purchased two rams yesterday. Came home from work today and one had died. Tested my water parameters and they are all good, as is the water temp.
I introduced the two fish gradually having first let them acclimatise in the bag before gradually introducing some of the aquarium water.
Hence I’m a little bemused as to why the fish had died. Can anyone shed any light on this for me? Thanks.
 
This is a very sensitive and delicate fish. There are frankly a few reasons that could result in the death, though 24 hours is quick for some of them.

Can you post the water parameters--these are GH (hardness), KH, pH and temperature. The KH you can forget here, the other three are however very important.

Can you test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, and if yes, what are the numbers?

What size is the tank, volume and dimensions. What existing fish are in this tank? A photo of the tank might help us.
 
I have a 180 litre tank that is planted with Vallis and Cryptocoryne.
The water parameters are as follows:

NH3 = 0ppm
NO2 = 0.5ppm
NO3 = 5ppm
PH 7
KH = 3dKH
GH = 6dKH
Water Temp 26 Deg C

My stock is as follows:

4 Platy's (appreciate that they prefer harder water but mis sold them by large pet store and are doing fine)
6 Bronze Cory's
2 Pearl Gourami's
2 Golden German Blue Rams
9 Neon Tetra's
1 Gold Head German Blue Ram (The other died)

I have an established Oase Biotherm 350 canister filter and a bubbler and a skimmer that i use intermittently. I do 20% water changes every 3 days and I use SeaChem Prime. The other 2 Rams I have are doing well as are all the other fish in the tank.
 
I see 2 additional possibilities.

The store rams were stressed, and the local, established rams could have... rammed them. Adding 2 was creating a territorial invasion.

or

Like a lot of store fish, especially rams, they couldn't handle the change, after shipping, pet store stress, etc.
 
I see 2 additional possibilities.

The store rams were stressed, and the local, established rams could have... rammed them. Adding 2 was creating a territorial invasion.

or

Like a lot of store fish, especially rams, they couldn't handle the change, after shipping, pet store stress, etc.
The 2 rams that were in the tank prior to the purchase of the recent rams are a lot smaller (almost 1/2 the size) so I'm not sure bullying would be the case. I have dosed the tank with Easy-Life Voogle to see if that will help calm the fish.
 
Gary's post popped up just as I began typing, and I don't need to continue as he has mentioned two things that immediately struck me.
 
The issue isn't bullying. It's survival. When a territorial dwarf Cichlid is fighting for its life (ie, its established territory), it will sometimes charge an invader and hit it right at the base of the gills. I have seen very small female Apistogramma Cichlids kill much larger males with one hit. It's astonishing to see, and very sad. Death is instant. A confused fish just in a tank for a few hours may not have its guard up.
 

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