Help! German Blue Rams Have white mouth, not eating.

Hey everyone--

I bought two platties about a week ago and added them to my tank. 24 Hours later I noticed one of the fish had a puffy white mouth and was not acting normal. It died 12 hours later. I took the dead fish back to the store along with the other Platty and expressed my concerns about Columnaris(sp?). The store advised that they didn't think that's what it was but said to treat the tank with Melafix if I was concerned. I did so for the past 3 days.

Today when I got home, I noticed that both of my Rams now have a white mouth and aren't eating. I immediately went to the store to tell them what happened and asked to speak with the person who knew the most about disease. After telling them the story and showing them these pictures, they advised to start treating with API Furan-2, which I just did 30 minutes ago. I was also told to remove my bio-media and purigen while treating and I have placed them in tank water in a sealed tupperware container in order to preserve them. I just read the "Columnaris Symptoms And Treatment" thread and it said to also treat with Kanaplex and that neither medicine should affect my bacteria. Any further help/advice would be greatly appreciated as I am very new at this. Thanks in advance. P.S. I am also in FL so the lowest I can get my tank temp is around 77 if I turn the heater off.

Tank

What is the water volume of the tank? 36 bow front - planted with 3" of substrate.
How long has the tank been running? About two months
Does it have a filter? Yes two. Tidal 55 and Tidal 35 both HOB.
Does it have a heater? Yes but it doesn't really come on due to room temp.
What is the water temperature? 78.5
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)
5 Neon Tetras, 5 Zebra Danios, 5 Brilliant Rasboras, 5 Male Guppies and Two German (blue) Rams. Also about 5 ghost shrimp.

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? Weekly
How much of the water do you change? 25%
What do you use to treat your water? Seachem Prime
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? Both

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Partially then used good bacteria. Not Tetra. It was refrigerated and worked great. I started in a 13 gallon and moved to this tank.
What do you use to test the water? API Freshwater Pro Kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
pH: 7.5

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Once per day
How much do you feed your fish? What they can eat in a few minutes
What brand of food do you feed your fish? Xtreme community pellets
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? No

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? 3 weeks
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? today
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? White puffy mouth, loss of appetite, lethargic.
Have you started any treatment for the illness? Yes, Furan-2
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? As described above.

Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)

See above

Pictures of Rams are today. Also included picture of the Platty that died for reference.

 

I plan on following the "Columnaris Symptoms And Treatment" guide post as that's what I suspect it is. I won't be able to get the Kanaplex until tomorrow.

I guess my immediate questions are:
1) Can I put my bio-media back in during treatment or should I leave it soaking in the dark?
2) Will it be be OK to start the Kanaplex tomorrow and does the Furan-2 work at all by itself?

The rest of the fish seem fine right now but I really want to save my Rams if possible.

 

Update: 3 hours later and both Rams have died. All other fish still showing no symptoms, even the Neon Tetras look/act normal. Do I continue treating with the Furan-2 and skip the Kanaplex? I'm starting to wonder if these fish just succumbed to stress and a not fully cycled tank. A few days ago I had a .25 Nitrite spike for two days right after I cleaned my filters. It went back to 0 after two days. I treated with Prime as soon as I detected it. At least I'm learning. This is not an easy hobby for sure but I am committed to getting it right and having happy fish.

 

Update: 3 hours later and both Rams have died. All other fish still showing no symptoms, even the Neon Tetras look/act normal. Do I continue treating with the Furan-2 and skip the Kanaplex? I'm starting to wonder if these fish just succumbed to stress and a not fully cycled tank. A few days ago I had a .25 Nitrite spike for two days right after I cleaned my filters. It went back to 0 after two days. I treated with Prime as soon as I detected it. At least I'm learning. This is not an easy hobby for sure but I am committed to getting it right and having happy fish.

That's very possible. I've heard one of the more prominent youtubers say that fish can generally handle one stressor okay, but problems show up when there's more than one.

One thing you probably weren't aware of is that your tank was too cool for GBR's to thrive. I haven't kept them, but I've repeatedly seen people who have say they won't thrive at temperatures below the low to mid 80's.

 

@coralbandit Any ideas?