Poorly Blue Rams

[Essjay]

I have had a pair of blue rams for three months. About a week ago the female lost the pink colour on her belly and her overall colour became darker. Then a couple of days ago the male stopped eating and he started hanging about in the bottom corner gasping. Today he has what looks like fungus between his anal fin and tail.
I understood that these symptoms were most likely to be water quality, so is my water not suitable for them?

Tank size 125l / 32gall
Ph 6.9
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
KH 35ppm
GH 125ppm
Temp 25C (Juwel heater can't keep it higher, new one arrived this afternoon)
Water change 25% once a week - due tomorrow.


They are currently in the hospital tank being treated with myxazin, but will they be OK back in the main tank when they are better?

 

[kribensis12]

I would say stress has left them open to diseases and infection's. I would get some CooperSafe and some Maracyn and treat them.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Copper isn't going to do anything for fin rot and fungus... A lot of places don't carry Maracyn and I heard some bad things about it.



Treat the tank with a duel dosage of Melafix and Primafix. After a week it should clear up. Keep an eye on him, and make sure he isn't developing any other secondary disease ontop of this fin rot/fungal infection.


Add some salt also. 1 tsp. per gallon if you don't have any inverts. If you do forget about it. If you got catfish and no inverts then add a half tsp. of salt. (de-ionized.)

Didn't realize you where treating them in a hospital tank. Add some salt, and yes, once they better it should be okay. Do lots of water changes too, at least a few a week till' they get better. This should make a world of difference in the rate of recovery.

 

[Essjay]

Thanks for the replies. I live in the UK so can't get my hands on maracyn (at least I haven't found anywhere!). They are in the hospital tank as I have nerite snails in my community tank and I managed to poison some a few years ago. I hadn't thought of salt, I'll add some straight away.

Any ideas what could have started it, what could have stressed them? They seemed fine for 2 1/2 months then suddenly changed. I've added no new tank mates since I bought them. The heater's been struggling to keep the temperature steady during the recent cold spells (it's the Juwel heater that came with the tank and I got a new one yesterday). I turned it up, got the water to 26C during the day, but when I got up in the morning it had dropped to 22 - 23C. So there have been some temperature swings - would that affect them?

 

[Larissa]

That could very easily be what is causing the problem. Rams in particular are very sensitive to swings in any water parameters - temperature included. Plus, they come from very warm water and like it around 27C. The cooler temp in your tank might have stressed them out and made them more prone to illness.