Rams Having Problems, Could This Be Down To The Ph?

[elisew]

Well there was me saying my rams wre doing fine in my ph......I found one dead female at the back of the tank last night and there`s no sign of the other female anywhere in the tank. Then when doing a water change last night I found my female Apisto covered in fungus, I ended up doing about 70% wc, unfortunately she was in a bad way and my son had to put her out of her misery. Tonight I`ve discovered one of my male rams swimming around looking quite poorly, his fins are quite closed and he just doesn`t look right. No signs of anything on him at all but he`s just not right. He`s in the plastic breeding trap at the mo because if he does pop his clogs I really don`t want him being eaten by the other fish
(I did post in the emergency section about whether or not to treat the tank at all but didn`t really get a definitive answer)

I tested my water and with API test kit and stats are normal i.e
ph 7.6
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates were at 80 before wc but now at 20-30

Could it be a case of the rams are just too sensitive to the hard water that`s in this area?

 

[Curiosity101]

What type of rams? GBR's? What temperature are they at?

 

[elisew]

yes GBRs, temp is at 26c

 

[markandhisfish]

7.6 should be no problem at all for rams , my ph is around that and my gold rams thrive , and these are basicly the same as gbrs when it comes to requirements. 26 c is a bit low tho so that may be your problem , raise the temp 2 or 3 degrees

 

[Curiosity101]

Well tbh GBRs should't be exposed to nitrates above 40ppm, they 'technically' should really be in 28-31C water and although a pH of 6-7 is best I can't see your pH causing any real issue.

Plus combined with the other losses I'd be inclined to think it could be the nitrates, not neccesarily the level they're at, but perhaps there was an ammonia spike in the water that resulted in the high nitrates?

 

[markandhisfish]

Well tbh GBRs should't be exposed to nitrates above 40ppm, they 'technically' should really be in 28-31C water and although a pH of 6-7 is best I can't see your pH causing any real issue.

Plus combined with the other losses I'd be inclined to think it could be the nitrates, not neccesarily the level they're at, but perhaps there was an ammonia spike in the water that resulted in the high nitrates?

good point , didnt see how hight the nitrates were

 

[elisew]

Thanks.

I did a test on Saturday and the stats were good i.e ph 7.6, amm 0, nitrites 0 and nitrates 20-30. I had previously tested the tap water which has nitrates of approx 20-30 so wasn`t too concerned about that. Then after I found the dead female gbr I did a 70% wc partly because the nitrates were higher than norm and due to having a dead fish in the tank, stats after wc were as posted above.

I was guessing in my post in the emergency section that the nitrates could have been high due to an ammonia spike even though ammonia tested at 0 on Saturday.

I`ve adjusted the temp up to 28c now.

Would there be any need to add any treatment after finding the apisto female in the state she was in or would I not need to?

 

[anon02]

Well there was me saying my rams wre doing fine in my ph......I found one dead female at the back of the tank last night and there`s no sign of the other female anywhere in the tank. Then when doing a water change last night I found my female Apisto covered in fungus, I ended up doing about 70% wc, unfortunately she was in a bad way and my son had to put her out of her misery. Tonight I`ve discovered one of my male rams swimming around looking quite poorly, his fins are quite closed and he just doesn`t look right. No signs of anything on him at all but he`s just not right. He`s in the plastic breeding trap at the mo because if he does pop his clogs I really don`t want him being eaten by the other fish
(I did post in the emergency section about whether or not to treat the tank at all but didn`t really get a definitive answer)

I tested my water and with API test kit and stats are normal i.e
ph 7.6
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates were at 80 before wc but now at 20-30

Could it be a case of the rams are just too sensitive to the hard water that`s in this area?

Maybe the high mineral content in your water supply adversely affected your fishs` osmoregulatory fucntions. How long had you had your fish and how long were they in the lfs before you bought them, or were they fresh imports ?

 

[Curiosity101]

I'm not fantastic when it comes to diseases, if it's internal you'd want to treat but I'm no good at diagnosis.

 

[elisew]

I`ve wondered before if the hard water could be contributing to the loss of some of my fish. I lost a lot quite quickly before coming across this forum and it was basically put down to bad water quality due to having non-aquatic plants in the tank. Since joining the forum and upgrading my tank everything has generally been ok.
I`ve had the rams for about 2 months (males) and then I got a couple of females the following week from a good breeder, they were all only young ones(males about 7 months old and females about 5 months) when I got them but were growing really well in size recently.

Thanks curiosity, I`m not sure whether I should or not and don`t know what treatment would be best for fungus anyway to be honest but there`s no signs of it on any of the other fish

 

[Curiosity101]

Your pH is 7.6 it's probably not that hard to be honest. Have you tested the GH and KH?

 

[elisew]

Your pH is 7.6 it's probably not that hard to be honest. Have you tested the GH and KH?

I don`t have GH and KH tests to be honest, I`ve only used the API master kit. It is a very hard water area where I am. As I`ve always known that I never saw the need to test for GH and KH. Do I need to?

 

[markandhisfish]

I`ve wondered before if the hard water could be contributing to the loss of some of my fish. I lost a lot quite quickly before coming across this forum and it was basically put down to bad water quality due to having non-aquatic plants in the tank. Since joining the forum and upgrading my tank everything has generally been ok.
I`ve had the rams for about 2 months (males) and then I got a couple of females the following week from a good breeder, they were all only young ones(males about 7 months old and females about 5 months) when I got them but were growing really well in size recently.

Thanks curiosity, I`m not sure whether I should or not and don`t know what treatment would be best for fungus anyway to be honest but there`s no signs of it on any of the other fish

i doubt very much its anything to do with ph/hardness . i keep rams and discus in water pretty similar to yours without any problems. melafix is meant to be quite good for fungus

copied and pasted this from wickipedia
Melafix (a proprietary name) is an all-natural aquarium antibiotic consisting of tea tree oil. It is a wide-range antibiotic product, and thus is effective for a wide variety of bacterial and fungal infections, such as fin rot and body "fungus". However, it is generally ineffective against aquatic parasites and is typically used for treating the wounds caused by them in order to prevent secondary infection by other microorganisms.[sup][1][/sup]


but if none of your other fish are showing signs i wouldnt rush out and buy some if it was me , just keep your water spotless and monitor for now .

 

[elisew]

Thanks Mark.

I do have melafix but wasnt sure whether to add meds, don`t want to start adding treatments unless necessary. Someone suggested pimafix but that has bad reviews and if its no good then it`s not worth stressing the fish out for no result, if you get my meaning?

will have a read up on some more info on melafix though, thank you

 

[anon02]

I`ve wondered before if the hard water could be contributing to the loss of some of my fish. I lost a lot quite quickly before coming across this forum and it was basically put down to bad water quality due to having non-aquatic plants in the tank. Since joining the forum and upgrading my tank everything has generally been ok.
I`ve had the rams for about 2 months (males) and then I got a couple of females the following week from a good breeder, they were all only young ones(males about 7 months old and females about 5 months) when I got them but were growing really well in size recently.

If your fish were bred in the same water supply that you use it probably wasn`t a mineral problem but you might be as well checking if he uses RO water