Steve420

Hi Everyone,

About 2 weeks ago I was lucky enough to adopt a couple of GBRs. One male and one female. Both were good looking fish and super active as soon as I got them home. I'm not sure if they had offically "paired" up, but they seemed to like each other and spent most of their time together.

Anyway, I came home from work Friday night and found my male GBR swimming vertically along the back wall of the tank. I watched him for about 20 minutes or so, and eventually he came to rest on the bottom. He was barely moving, so I pulled him out and put him into his own "bowl" (sorry...it was all I had available). Within a couple of hours, he passed on.

My female is doing well still, although she seems bummed out that her buddy is no longer around. I had tested my water right after pulling my GBR out and it tested at 0 Ammon, 0 Nitrites and approx 10 Nitrates. None of my other fish seem to have anything wrong with them.

So (2) questions:

1 - Any ideas as to what happened here?

-and-

2 - Should I attempt adding new GBRs? I'm thinking about getting 1 male and 1 additional female. They are such cool fish but I'm worried that this will happen again.

AAARRRGGGHHHH - maybe I just needed to vent...my wife doesn't quite understand the connection I have to my fish. \end rant

Nick G

GBR's are super sensitive fish that can be very hard to keep. You may not have done anything wrong, sorry to hear about your Ram.

agabr123

i'm with nick, you may want to think about doing two smaller water changes a week rather than one larger one. and i don't see any problem with looking into getting another male, just remove the female from the tank and add them both back in at the same time.

i'm sorry you lost him

Steve420

Thanks for the encouragement guys. I had been waiting for quite some time to get my GBRs and was really excited the day I brought them home. This was just a big downer for me

I guess this is all part of the hobby though....

So my best bet is to pull out my female and add her back if/when I decide to add additional GBRs...thats cool. I can manage that.

And I think that I'll start the dual water changes per week. I'm sure all my fish will benefit from that.

Steve

cerianthus

Sorry to hear your loss!
I see you check others but how about pH? I know, female is doing fine as you've mentioned. Checking pH wont hurt.
Dont know the size of tank but if male can be obtained for sure, I dont think there will be any problem. In case you are worried about temp turf war, how about making your DIY contraption. Use any clear plastic jar (carbon jar) with lid. Punch lots of holes on the side for circulation(hot tip of screwdriver to punch holes). After acclimating new male, leave him in jar w/ lid, put some gravel/rocks to hold jar down. Observe how they react, perhaps LOVE at first sight? New fish can adjust to your water w/o being harrassed by any tankmates! Release after a day or two.

Master Snake

The same thing happened to me last night! Male GBR swimming vertically across the top of the tank to slowly fade to the bottom. He is not a goner yet but it is looking that way. Sad times.

ABCDemily

This often happens when the water in the tank isn't 'old' enough. The tank has to be very established. Generally, good quality stock isn't hard to care for, it's the fish that have had the hormonal treatments or even dyed that are hard to look after. Good luck witht he rest of them!