Sick Blue Rams

[emommy]

Help! I haven’t had an aquarium for years, I set up a 20 gallon freshwater community tank for my daughter who has autism. The tank has beeen set up for several months with no problems. 3 weeks ago I bought 4 young blue rams at a reputable breeder at an aquarium club to add to the tank. I wanted to quarantine the fish, but my daughter was in too much of a hurry. So they were put in with the other fish. After two weeks, one of the rams had a white fuzzy spot on its fin. Then another one had it. Didn’t look like ich to me. Only on fins. We began treating the whole tank for fungus with Pimafix. Treating tank for two weeks. No other fish are affected except the Rams. There are now three with multiple spots on their fins. They are rubbing the decorations and holding fins close to body. Today I removed all 4 Blue Rams to a 10 gallon quarantine tank. I read that fungus is usually a sign of another underlying problem. I know the move to the quarantine tank really stressed them and they look bad. I don’t want to upset my daughter, if they die. Please look at my photos and tell me what disease these fish have and how I can treat them. Thanks from a grateful mom.

 

[fishperson100]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

Could you please answer a few questions?

1. Did you cycle the tank before you put the fish in?
2. What are the parameters of the tank? (pH, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, etc...)
3. What makes you think it is not ich?
4. Does it look like cotton fin fungus?

Thank you!
- fishperson100

 

[emommy]

1. Yes we cycled the tank.
2. General Hardness=60, Carbonate Hardness=40, pH =7.0 , Nitrite=0.5, Nitrate = 20, ammonia = 0.5
3-4. Could be ich, I am not sure. It looked like fuzzy balls on the fins, comparing to pictures online it looked more like fungus to me. (See picture below)
I didn’t use aquarium salt because we had a Cory catfish. The quarantine tank has same composition as the main tank.
Thanks.

 

[Colin_T]

It's either Lymphocystis (a stress virus) or excess mucous.

Make sure the water quality is good. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for a couple of weeks.

The fish is pretty skinny and should be fed 3-5 times per day for a couple of weeks to help them regain some condition.

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If the fish don't get fatter after a few weeks of good food then treat them for intestinal worms.

Use Praziquantel to treat them for gill flukes & tapeworms, and Levamisole to treat them for thread/ round worms. You treat them once a week for 3-4 weeks and do a 75% water change 24-48 hours after treating. Don't use the medications together because you can overdose the fish and kill them.

The easiest way to treat them is to use Praziquantel on day one. Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate on day 2 & 3. Treat the tank with Levamisole on day 4 and do a 75% water change and gravel clean on day 5, 6 & 7 and then start with Praziquantel again on day 8.

The water changes will remove most of the medication so you don't overdose the fish. The gravel cleaning will suck out any worms and eggs that have been expelled by the fish. Repeating the treatment for 3-4 doses at weekly intervals will kill any worms that hatch from eggs. At the end of the treatment you will have healthier fish.

 

[emommy]

Thank you so much. We will start the process. We are keeping the quarantine tank at 84 degrees. The other tank was only 80.

 

[Colin_T]

it doesn't have to be 84F, 80 is fine.