Makoblue

Hi there, some of you guys seem to be very well knowledged on fish keeping. Could someone give me some advice for my poor blue ram? (butterfly ram)

Here's the history of events thus far:
-ten gallon tank with lots of plants and 1 bloodfin tetra, 4 cardinals, 2 harlequin rasbora, 1 kuhli loach
-purchased 3 blue rams
-2 weeks later ICH broke out (?)
-lost three fish (two cardinals, 1 rasbora)
-used quick cure, everyone got betterin 1 week approx.
-2 weeks later: 1 blue ram hides, sits at bottom of tank, doesnt want to eat
-went to trusted independent pet store and bought pH kit(which with my previous tropical tank i never used and my fish lasted for years and years!!)
-slowly lowered pH level to 6.4-6.5 from 7, 2 days ago
-my blue ram still is hiding not eating (only 1, the other two are perfect)

Ugh. I hate it when my fish get sick... i feel so helpless... at least i can take my cat to the vet...

If anyone has ideas, much appreciated.
Thank you for your time,
Julia

smillermom

Hi! I hate to tell you this, but you have way too many fish for your size tank. Because all the fish you have stay relatively small, you can use the inch rule. Add adult grown inches and you will see:
Kuhli loach-4
harlequin rasboras-4
bloodfin tetra-2
cardinal tetras-8
Blue rams-2-3 inches each grown, 6
You basicallly have 24 possible inches of fish in your tank. Rams require more care than most fish and are very sensitive to conditions and water parameters. I would check the nitrites, nitrates, and ammonia levels in your tank. With that many fish, you will have probs with water quality. Any chemicals you use also affect the fish, especially in such a small tank. What did you use to lower the ph? When you gave your ich treatment, you should have made a partial water change before adding the meds daily. I hate to tell you this, but you really need to scale down the number of fish in your tank.

Makoblue

Hello, thank you for responding, smillermom.

I used a standard pH kit to lower the level.(I'm unsure what the chemical was, but it ensured on the package it was safe for all tropical fish)

When I was treating the ich, I did make partial water changes everyday. All seem perfectly healthy now. The only one acting strange is one blue ram. I realize they are sensitive to the water conditions. Possibly a 40% water change may help? I will also try the nitrate/nitrite levels, although because of the amount of plants i have (4) toxic levels should be lower on the whole, no?

My fish are relatively small (like you said) and there are only 8 left from the original 11. I've had all of them for over a year except the rams.

Any further comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Julia

Butterfly

Rams will do fine in just about any ph if acclimated to them. What does upset them greatly is a fluctuating ph. Using the ph up or down causes just that. Your fish will be better off not using chemicals to alter the ph. The do however require near perfect water conditions. Any Ammonia, Nitrites and high Nitrates usually means their death. They also need a bigger tank at least a twenty gallon for three rams. The recommendation is 1 male and 2 females.
Yes your tank is greatly over stocked
Carol