Juan and Sylvia

Does anybody know if blue rams get this disease, hole in the head? I started out with one male ram and added another blue ram a few weeks later. After a few months I found a female blue ram. They were all in a 60 gallon with other peaceful fish. The two males would fight over the female and she would go back and forth between the two. They would even create hollows in the sand. But soon afterwards one of the male rams had a sore appear on behind their gill. He lasted two days and died. The female also appeared to suffer of an ailment- Her dorsal fin looked like it was missing a piece. She died in two days also. The last ram in the tank is still alive 2 or 3 months later. But he looks like he has the same sore behind his gill. He's had it for a few days but he's still eating. What's going on? A few other fish have died for no apparent reason also. Please help.

capekate

Hello
Blue Rams are really great little fish..
Reading your post, it seems that you may possibly have two things going on that is causing problems. When you say sore behind their gill, are you looking at redness/swollen? It can be ammonia poisoning, which the red gill/swollen is a symptom of. You say that a few other fish have died for no apparent reason also, so I am wondering what your water tests read?
Your female ram with the fin damage may have been fighting with one or both of the males and may have died from stress, injury and or illness as well.
What other fish do you have in the tank? How long has it been set up? And what water test results can you share with us?

Juan and Sylvia

Thank you so much for your fast response. I ran out of test strips so that will be the first thing I'll do tomorrow. Today I found a dead neon tetra. I believe it's the same tetra that became discolored. He had lost his vibrant color for a few weeks. The sore on one side of his body doesn't seem to be related to his gill because his gills don't look swollen. But I'll test the water and let you know tomorrow. I do water changes every ten days or so. I have two other fishes that are sensitive to water quality and they seem to be fine- a glass catfish and a wild-caught flounder. They're both eating well. The angelfish I have is as hungry as always. But I have another angelfish that I had for a whole year that had stopped eating and recently died. I noticed that he didn't grow in the year that I had him. He died about two months ago. So I am losing fish one by one.

Juan and Sylvia

Well my blue ram passed away the morning after this email. I bought ammonia test strips and the reading was 0. I asked at my lfs and found that another fishkeeper just losed his blue ram the same week as me and that his ram was from the same batch. I heard that the lfs also lost the last ram they had. The fellow fishkeeper thinks that the rams were old because they were full size when they arrived at the fish store. The ram I had finally had red spots appear on the side of the body that had the sore. The next day he was dead. But I also lost a neon tetra the day before. The one that was pale. And today I noticed that I have another neon tetra that is turning pale. I also notice that one or two neon tetras isolate themselves from the rest of the shoal. I still have to buy the 5 in 1 test strips. I'm a little broke now with the price of gas and everything else.
60 gal
setup for 6 months now
2 bala sharks
1 pearl gourami
1 angelfish
10 neon tetras
1 fiddler crab
1 raphael stripped catfish
1 wild caught flounder
1 glass catfish