Golden Ram Emergency

[crustacean]

Hi all.
A couple of days ago my female gold ram turned up dead, I assumed it was because she was being bullied by the male, as she showed no symptoms of illness prior to her death.
Just now I have come back into my room and the male is on the bottom of the tank, unable to swim. When I lift him he sinks like a stone again.
I am assuming this means there is something wrong with his swim bladder.
About 2 hours ago he was just fine, now he is on the verge of death.
He has no external symptoms, he is still as colorful as ever.
Prior to this they were both extremely healthy, happy and eating fine. I have checked the water, it suits them fine (in theory). They have never had any issues with their tank mates, which are mostly tetras.
Please, if anyone knows what might be causing this, or even better, how to fix it, please let me know.
He is one of my favourite fish.
Thanks for any help you can provide, it will be massively appreciated.

:UPDATE:
He has since died.
In the time it took me to write the initial message he stopped breathing.
If anyone knows what might have caused this, please still let me know. I want to make sure my other fish are not in harms way, and I want to avoid it if at all possible, if I ever get rams again...

 

[WILDER]

Need to look at what you feed the fish.
water stats would be good.
R.I.P.

 

[lilmisshertz]

It may have been due to his swim bladder failing. The swim bladder is an organ inside the fish that fills with blood gasses when the fish wants to float up in the water. When it fails it can't hold blood gasses anymore so the fish sits on the bottom. There are many possible causes to swim bladder failure. Stress, dirty water, temperature shock, and infection are just a few - I'm not pinpointing which one was the cause, I'm just giving you the information i have found.
There is no cure for a failed swim bladder. It has to heal itself and unfortunately it usually doesn't regain it's function again.

They can still live a very long life in his condition though. It doesn't usually affect other bodily functions.

Sorry for your loss.
I'm not saying this is the reason, but its a possibility.

Here is the link where I found the info:
Sinking fish

 

[WILDER]

You can control swim bladder with a good diet.
But to be honest they rarely make it.

 

[Spooky76]

Shame - sorry to hear about that.

My friend has RAMS, he had one with a swim bladder problem. He managed to keep it alive for 3 months, it obviously wasnt right, but he sat at the bottom quite happily and sometimes managed a swim up to the middle for food.

I think RAMS are very susceptable to poor water conditions, so might be worth checking all your parameters, because they do like a lower PH (6.5) I believe.

I did read on this forum about feeding fish peas to help with swim bladder, so I give mine 2 peas a week and some broccoli just to keep this fit. Im not even sure RAMS would touch it though.

Cant be much help really sorry about your fish.

 

[crustacean]

Thanks for all of the replies.

As for the tank mates:
-10 cardinal tetras
-10 black neons
-5 congo tetras
-1 clown loach
-1 pakistani loach
-3 small catfish (I dont know the breed)
-1 african Krib

The water conditions are:
-26 degrees
-pH 6.8-7
-KH about 7
-GH about 7

They have been in this set up for about 6 months with no issues at all.
They have never had fights with any other fish in the tank, though as said before, the male did chase the female sometimes.
I recently introduced a julidochromis transcriptus, which also died because it refused to eat.
I fear that the juli could have been diseased and introduced something to the Rams. I have treated the tank with myaxin just now in the hopes that if anything is there it will be killed by that.
If it something that gets to chichlids, then the last thing I want is for the krib to die, he is my favourite.

From what I have read I think those water conditions and tank mates were fine for the Rams? At any rate, they were doing just great, up until they suddenly and inexplicably died.
From what has been said in the other posts, I dont think it was swim bladder by itself, as my male not only sunk, but was having trouble staying upright, breathing, or even moving its tail.
Something was catastrophically wrong...

Should I continue to treat with myaxin?
Any ideas of what could have caused the death?
This has been a tradgic week in a tank that was almost completely devoid of tradgedy up until now...