Lonely German Blue Ram

[rhandyrhoads]

Hello, I recently picked up two pairs of German blue rams, but one of the females died and it's mate has lost a lot of its color. Would bringing in another female solve the problem?

 

[Ninjouzata]

First you want to figure out why the female died as if it is something in the water that is probably why he is losing color.
What size is your tank? Is it cycled? What are the water parameters? (pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) Any other tank mates? What is the temperature?
 
I'm sorry for your loss by the way!

 

[TallTree01]

If you want to get him anew mate wou would be best to get 2-3 females. Once he chooses one to be his mate, you can rehome the others

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum
 
As Ninjouzata said its important to work out what happened with the female first as it could be affecting the male just slower.
 
Blue Rams are hard to keep though, because its nearly impossible to know what water conditions they will need in your tank. The problem is that wild Rams need a low ph and a high temperature and without it, it can cause major problems long and short term. By contrast if they are farm bred and a long way from wild fish they need neutral ph and a mid temperature (I sometimes wonder if some even need a bit of salt because of how they are farmed but nothing to support that idea) and again if these conditions are not matched in the home tank it can cause big problems again. To make it worse its not unusual for fish farms to cross farm bred fish with wild fish in the last stage before the broods come to the shop... so again its even harder to know what these fish will need in a tank to survive.
 
Wills

 

[CSnyder00]

GBR's can be very hard to keep alive. Sometimes it is very difficult even if you get everything right. Just hard to do.