Problem With Golden Rams

[04niceck]

Hi all,

A few months ago I bought an 80l aquarium, I bought 2 female golden rams and 1 male with the intention of possibly breeding them in the future. However my problem is that the 2 females have become really skinny and pale while the male remains a healthy size and colour. I have been feeding them morning and evening with flakes or pellets and occasionally frozen blood worms as a treat. I was looking on some forums and read that this problem could be due to internal parasites, so I bought some medicine to treat this (seachem paraguard) and have been using it daily for the past couple of weeks. The females do not seem to have improved and I have absolutely no idea what else to do. I have been doing a 60% water change every single weak. I have tested for nitrate, nitrite, ammonia and pH and all are fine. I had been inspecting the fish for a while and noticed the male was "bullying" the females also so I placed a divider within the tank to seperate the male from the 2 females. But to make matters worse the female has banged her head on the divider and its bleeding a little so I removed the divider right away.

I am completely out of options
please help!

 

[StandbySetting]

I can't help on the illness front but their diet could do with improving, try to feed a varied diet, flakes and pellets shouldn't be the staple diet, feed the following: Chopped Mussel and Prawn, Brine Shrimp (rarely), Mysis, Bloodworm, Daphnia, Boiled Chicken, high quality flake, high quality cichlid pellets.

Out of interest what is the tank temperature? Gold Rams are a xanthic variety so are tank bred, and will do best at higher temperatures (28oC-32oC), when kept in lower temperatures they become prone to Bacterial, Fungal and Viral infections due to the slowing of the metabolism.

What are your actual parameters for Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and PH? Soft water is preferable.

 

[04niceck]

The tank temperature is 29oC. Just done some water tests now:

Ammonia: between 0ppm and 0.25ppm
pH: 7/7.2
Nitrite: between 0ppm and 0.25ppm
Nitrate: 0ppm

 

[StandbySetting]

Your water parameters aren't helping, ammonia should be 0, as should nitrite, your nitrate is fine, was the tank cycled prior to adding fish? What's your KH?

 

[04niceck]

I bought the fish a couple of weeks after the tank had been set up to allow it to cycle. As to the KH I have no idea but i do live in an area where the water is slightly hard to moderatley hard (100-200mg/l)

 

[StandbySetting]

How did you cycle the tank?

 

[04niceck]

I used the fish and gravel from my main tank which is about 7 years old now

 

[StandbySetting]

So you added them, and tested for a month or so to keep an eye on parameters to ensure the bacterial colony was sufficient before adding the Rams? Sorry for all the questions, just trying to outline a cause of the ammonia and nitrite spikes.

 

[04niceck]

The swordtails were in the tank for about 2 weeks to allow the bacteria to develop. I didnt check the parameters which I realise now was the wrong thing to do. But this was like 7 months ago, would having not cycled properly at the start be affecting the fish still 7 months on?

 

[StandbySetting]

No, but something is causing an ammonia and nitrite spike, anything decaying in the tank? M.ramirezi is a delicate species and elevated concentrations of ammonia and nitrite are detrimental to any fish but more so with M.ramirezi, you should do regular water changes to bring the concentration down.

 

[04niceck]

nope nothing decaying. Only things in their is live plants, bogwood and ofcourse the rams. Would more plants help? and should i be doing water change more than just weekly?

 

[StandbySetting]

If you have elevated levels you should be doing them daily until you stop getting the spikes, no dying live plants?

 

[04niceck]

nope none dying, they have been growing for quite sometime. Usually dont have much luck with live plants but these have done really well. I'll do a water change everyday from now and keep monitering the parameters. Should I keep the male seperate because he is quite a bit larger than the 2 females?

 

[StandbySetting]

Keep them together, he should do them no harm.