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

[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.

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

The males were brought into lfs by breeder somewhere and the females came from a breeder in the midlands area where I know the water is much softer (parents live midlands) so none of them were bred in this area.

Would I be much better off looking for fish that are only bred in the local area in the future when it comes to rams etc?

 

[markandhisfish]

that does make acclimatisation easier , altho still perfectly possible to acclimate fish from other water . for example my rams , i have no idea where they were bred. and my discus were bred in malaysia using their tap water which is very soft and acidic , then imported where the dealer kept them in ro water , and ultimately bought to my tank and kept in my local tap water which has a ph of around 7.4 and as for kh gh etc your guess is as good as mine . so as you see taking supposedly delicate fish from 1 type of water to another is perfectly realistic.

 

[anon02]

I think that would be the safest option, however I dont want to mislead you into thinking that my suggestion is the answer to your problem. I would keep this thread live and maybe someone with a more certain diagnosis will see it

Best of luck

 

[elisew]

Hmm, I was hoping that by acclimatising the rams over a period of about an hour to an hour and a half by drip method that they`d be ok. I acclimatise all my new fish so that they don`t suffer/stress. Maybe it is to do with the water being too hard for them to cope with long term?
Not really sure what to think to be honest, I just feel gutted and frustrated that I`ve already lost 2 of my favourites and may possibly lose the other 2

Thanks for all the replies so far, I appreciate your thoughts and views

 

[anon02]

IF the problem was with dissolved minerals it was only a matter of time. If you think of the osmotic process in terms of your tank filter and the minerals as suspended solids, eventually there will come a time when your filter can`t cope

 

[BethK]

You say one was covered in fungus? When was the last batch of fish added to your tank? The fungus fish, when was she added?

It might just be me thinking it but are you sure that an illness wasn't introduced to your tank and that's what is causing the issue?

 

[elisew]

My Apisto female was covered in fungus, she was added to the tank ages before any of the rams and they were added just before upgrade to 360ltr at beginning of September.
The last fish added were the Celebes rainbowfish, approx 3 weeks ago, all 6 of them are ok (touch wood).

 

[elisew]

Sorry, been thinking since I posted earlier......The last additions to my tank were a male and female Pearl Gourami and 3 corys about 2 weeks ago, I forgot

All the other fish seem to be doing ok, no signs of illness or infection so far

 

[anon02]

Do you have any rams left in the tank Elise ?

I`ve been fancying 3 gbr for my big tank. I went to water world to have a look what they had in and took the opportunity to ask the fish guy about how well they did in hard water and he said that all their rams are imported so he`d never had a problem (they have the same soft water supply as me). He couldn`t help out with any tank bred suppliers, sorry

 

[elisew]

Do you have any rams left in the tank Elise ?

I`ve been fancying 3 gbr for my big tank. I went to water world to have a look what they had in and took the opportunity to ask the fish guy about how well they did in hard water and he said that all their rams are imported so he`d never had a problem (they have the same soft water supply as me). He couldn`t help out with any tank bred suppliers, sorry

No worries, thanks anyway.

Yes I have one of the males still swimming around, he seems to be ok at the moment. The other male is still in the breeding trap, he's the one whose fins are quite close to his body. Despite upping the temp he's just sitting with his nose pointed upwards, he's hardly moving at all.

 

[anon02]

Hi Elise,
How`s the sick ram ? is his tankmate still ok ?