Help Please! Male Ram Died Today?

[littlebensfish]

Hi all,
Any help would be appreciated.

Woke this morning to find our male ram struggling to swim to the top, his body almost vertical. He seemed to be struggling to stay up and would seem to float back down to the bottom. His beautiful colour was drained out of him.
Funnily, i did look at him last night and thought his gills seemed to be moving more rapidly than usual.

By this afternnon i was heartbroken to find that he'd died.
This is the first fish i've lost

I have no idea what this could have been. There is only him and his girlie in that tank and there's been nothing new introduced to the tank recently.

Can anyone help as to what it may have been? I'm worried about the girl now and don't know if i should be doing something for her?

Thanks

 

[RadaR]

Hi,
Do you know what the stats of the tank are? (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, temperature....generel hardness would be useful too in this case).
It could be a number of things.
I know it's hard when we lose fish

 

[stang1]

I'm afraid I can't be of much help but I had exactly the same thing happen with my male Rams. Water stas were all fine and the filter was good enough but he died after 3 days. I ended up buying another one, same thing happened and after a 3rd attempt I gave up. My female remained fine and was perfectly healthy but the males never lasted more than about 4 days.
I have read somewhere that Blue rmas can be from poor stock due to being injected, maybe this could be the problem?

 

[littlebensfish]

Sorry, gonna sound a real amateur now!

I haven't a clue and i don't have a kit to check ( i Know, sorry!)

There were only the two rams in the tank. I do frequent 25% water changes. I always wash the filter in tank water.
Nothing different has been added to the tank.
I just thought maybe by his behaviour someone might be able to point me in the right direction?

I looked him all over and there were no unusual colourings/marks. It mainly seemed to be the fact that he couldn't keep afloat. But he didn't turn upside down or on his side at all, just downwards?

Thanks again

 

[littlebensfish]

I'm afraid I can't be of much help but I had exactly the same thing happen with my male Rams. Water stas were all fine and the filter was good enough but he died after 3 days. I ended up buying another one, same thing happened and after a 3rd attempt I gave up. My female remained fine and was perfectly healthy but the males never lasted more than about 4 days.
I have read somewhere that Blue rmas can be from poor stock due to being injected, maybe this could be the problem?

Thanks Stang1. At least i might be blameless! I loved that fish (so pretty) and had him for quite a while now so it was a bit of a suprise! And, yes, the girl seems fine, though a bit quiet.

 

[RadaR]

Rams are quite hard to keep. Their water must be excellent. Really not your fault.
From experience, they will only ever do well in soft water aswell.
Sounds as though they could have got an internal bacterial infection.

 

[stang1]

Radar is right, water quality needs to be good.
We kept ours at a PH of about 6.5 and used RO water to keep the water soft.
Ours also had no sign of illness, just went pale and died.
Here's a link to explain more about premature deaths, something to do with breeding methods.

Blue Rams

 

[littlebensfish]

Rams are quite hard to keep. Their water must be excellent. Really not your fault.
From experience, they will only ever do well in soft water aswell.
Sounds as though they could have got an internal bacterial infection.

Hi,

Just a quick question then, should i keep the girlie away from any other fish? I was considering putting her in my community tank as she's all alone? Maybe not eh? What do you think?

Radar is right, water quality needs to be good.
We kept ours at a PH of about 6.5 and used RO water to keep the water soft.
Ours also had no sign of illness, just went pale and died.
Here's a link to explain more about premature deaths, something to do with breeding methods.

Blue Rams

Thanks for your help. Yep, my male seemed to be drained of all his colour too. What a shame eh? I know if i do get anymore now i'll make sure i get them from a private breeder then and not a shop thats imported them! Thanks again

 

[stang1]

No problem and good luck.

 

[RadaR]

Hi,

Just a quick question then, should i keep the girlie away from any other fish? I was considering putting her in my community tank as she's all alone? Maybe not eh? What do you think?

No need in moving the female Ram. If your other one got a disease/infection it was because it was weak and so your other fish (except maybe the female) shouldn't get it.