Whats With My Female Blue Ram?

[Katty]

Excuse me if I'm making any glaring ram mistakes, as I'm new to these guys...

Right now I have a young female and a male blue ram in a 20g tank, plus some neons and corydoras. This is about their 2nd week with me, after spending 1 week in a quarantine tank. They were both doing great in QT, zipping around and eating like little pigs. But now the female has become a bit of a recluse and hides in the back top corners of the tank. If she moves, it's to another corner, or behind a rock in the corner. She won't eat any of the flake or pellet food, even if I put it in front of her face. I have not tried the frozen bloodworms yet, but I do believe she ate them last time they were on the menu. Her colors look great though, she is much brighter than the male. I actually thought she was a male at first but the pink stomach gave it away. Her stomach does look a little bit more pink/red than it was when I got her.

To contrast, the male is doing awesome. He swims around fine, is active, and eats anything and everything. He has been chasing the female around a little bit though, could this be why she's sitting up in the corner?

Ammonia and nitrite are 0.

What's going on with her? What should I do?

 

[minxfishy]

Can I ask what temperature the water is? GBR prefer higher temps 28 - 32c. Do you also know your values for PH and nitrAte? Is the male showing any aggression towards her?

 

[Athena]

Hi - yes, this sounds like typical behaviour for GBRs. During spawning the male can get a little too frisky and really tire the female out, especially if she's not feeling in the mood! She will then try to hide somewhere or hang out in a corner, to get some rest. If she is showing a pink/orangey tummy then it's spawning time.

Keep an eye on her though because I've seen cases with my own fish over the years where the male can become a real nuisance and just continuously pesters the female and tires her out so much that she can become a recluse for days/weeks at a time and appears to be in a constant "sulk", only appearing from beneath her hidey hole in short bursts to grab some food!

You'll know when your GBRs aren't happy because they will begin to go a charcoal-ish, dark colour. When that happens it means they are stressed and you need to quickly find the cause and rectify it otherwise they go downhill and get sick.

I don't keep GBRs any more as I found them quite hard work - very fussy eaters, sensitive to water changes, stressing easily etc.

I still keep cichlids, though - I've two tanks of short bodied pink convicts - they exhibit much the same behaviour as the Rams but are a lot sturdier and I've never had one incident of illness amongst them all in the few years I've been keeping/breeding them.

Regards - Athena

 

[Katty]

Can I ask what temperature the water is? GBR prefer higher temps 28 - 32c. Do you also know your values for PH and nitrAte? Is the male showing any aggression towards her?

The pH is 7.2 and the nitrate is between 0 and 20 ppm. I only have strips for the nitrate, I know, I know, strips suck. The temperature is 81F/27C. Not perfect for rams but the male does fine in the parameters so far, so I'm not sure why only the female would be wacky if its something to do with the water.

The male chases her occasionally. Mostly after the lights have been on a few hours or after feeding. I think he leaves her alone entirely when the lights are off. He does not chase her when she's in the corners.

Edit: I noticed she has small, fuzzy white "horn" growing off of her head. She may actually be sick... She stays near the surface and does not run anymore when the male tries to chase her. I think I will move over to emergencies and see about the horn and the behavior.