04_si

about 4 months ago i got 2 GBRs. They were healthy and eating lots and everything was good. very regular water changes (about 10% 2x a week)

then about a week ago one was looking very pale, and kind of just hiding out in the back corner. I think because the other was bullying him (both males. accidentally)

then tuesday, i came home from work, he was dead. tested water. ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 10

Wednesday, the other Ram was looking almost depressed that his brother was gone. he was still colourful, but not swimming at all. he was resting in the plants, on top of the leaves. I went out for a couple of hours, when I came home, he was dead too.

all the other fish are perfectly fine (4 serpae tetra, 1 small angelfish, 1 small clown loach, and 1 clown pleco) and theyre all acting normal and eating like little piggies



i know its quite a read but anyone have any ideas on why my 2 favorite fish died within 24 hours of eachother??

Blub

Rams are very sensative, and I have heard of plenty of cases where they just die mysteriously in a perfect tank. Maybe this is one of them?

freshwaterguy

Sorry to hear about your loss looks like you keep a very clean tank and do regular maintenance giving the GBRs the best chance.

What GH KH & pH readings do you have?

I have just today got two female and two male Blue Rams in my 200L they have been in tank for a few hours and are so cool I just hope they will do well

I would test the above if you do not have already and see if you have ideal or close to ideal conditions for Rams, do not let this experience put you off as I am sure they are worth persistance. I for one cannot take my eyes off my new little guys (& girls)

Allie

Some fish just cannot handle the stress of a move. Some species are more fragile than others.

04_si

yeah maybe just one of those things.

i bought two more after the first one died, i believe they are both females. theyre very small still

04_si

so on saturday the male, and one female layed eggs (I guess the female layed, the male fertilized) and sunday morning the other female was hanging out on the bottom of the tank in a corner not moving. went to my LFS he said she was being bullied and bring her in. when i got home she was dead

fast forward to today (thursday)

i get home from work, and my remaining female is lifeless, and hanging out in the bottom of the tank not swimming. every so often she rolls upside down and panics to right herself, all while staying at the bottom of the tank.

what is going on with my rams, im having such trouble with these little fish!!!!!!

is it a parasite, or bacteria? all my other fish are FINE including the male ram!

Lucy

I fell in love with rams recently and I've been doing a lot of reading on them.
They don't like hard water, so like freshwaterguy suggested, test your GH KH & PH and see if it matches the needs of the rams.

I have hard water, so as much as I love them, I don't think I'll be able to keep them.

Good luck.

mrsmuffin

I have seriously been thinking about rams for my new 65, but now I am seriously reconsidering...

04_si

i found the problem. my male is SUPER agressive to other rams. i talked to a guy at a LFS and he gave me a female. i brought her home, and in 3 hours she was in my tank the male just chased her around the whole time. i know my water is fine.

mrsmuffin - i love these fish. they are great fish, if you have clean water. I do 2 small weekly water changes, and ive never had a water problem. i do have a male ram problem. haha, hes just too agressive with chasing. if you do get some rams and happen to get an agressive male, dont be discouraged. you can either trade at the LFS (which is what im doing in a week), or you can keep him by himself. its only female rams he chases...

mrsmuffin

Thanks for the encouragement. One of my concerns though is that my pH is kind of high - 7.6 out of the tap... I am just not sure what I am going to do. Like I said in another post, I guess I will just have to see how the wind is blowing on the day that I go to the LFS.

I am glad that you figured out your problem!

Lucy

mrsmuffin, dking has about that same ph and he keeps them, for that matter, they spawned!

Thanks 04_si, I'm like mrsmuffin, I'm not sure what to do either, the store than carries them is over an hour away.
It's nice of your LFS to exchange him for you.

clinton1621

As far as having hard water problems, its a bit more work but its worth doing if you want a certain hardness and ph...... mix your regular water with either distilled or R.O. water until you find a mixture that dilutes your hardness and ph down to the range you want, then every time you do a water change do the EXACT same mixture for the replacement water... and bingo you have your constant hardness and ph level that you want (also try to use distilled/R.O. for evaporation fill ups as the minerals dont evaporate)

04_si

my water is hard too. my straight tap water is about 7.6-7.8 ph

can you get R.O. water anywhere?

clinton1621

Some LFS sell R.O. by the gallon, but you need your own container usually. Distilled water is pretty much the same thing and you can just buy it at the grocery store... its a little bit more expensive than buying R.O. from the pet store but it is a lot easier to get. Basically for ph and hardness they are exactly the same.... they both have all the minerals and impurities stripped from them, thus they are 'pure' water with basically 0 hardness... so when you mix it with tap water you are essentially just diluting the mineral levels of the tap water to lower its hardness and in turn ph level.

Lucy

Thanks for that explanation, clinton.

clinton1621

No problem

Butterfly

My water ph goes between 7.4 and 7.6 and My Rams are doing fine and in fact have spawned and produced fry twice. Now if I could only convince them the fry aren't lunch
Carol

dking271

I have had problems with aggressive males beating on females. I had one male which I could not get paired, but unfortunately, he passed unexpectedly. I also am not having any trouble keeping Rams in hard water with a PH 7.6-7.8. Most tank raised Rams are relatively tolerant of water conditions. Wild caught specimans are not. The two things which I have found critical to keeping these fish alive, no nitrites, and low nitrates. Any amount of nitrite seems more deadly to Rams than other fish I have kept.

04_si

thanks for the explanation (also)

im hoping to get a pair and raise some fry, i would really like that!