Please help!!! I think my Bolivian Ram is sick.

Hey guys. I bought 4 bolivian rams several days ago. They are in my 75 gallon tank. Today I noticed one of them has a very dark almost coal colored face, and vertical stripes on the body of the same color. Is this normal? the other three dont have it.

Here pics

He is also breathing heavy. His mouth is constantly opening and closing, as are his gills. Any advice???

 

Do you know if he's being bullied? It could be stress,

 

This one is usualy seperate from the other three. IDK what genders they are. These were the only ones left at the LFS, so I may have 2 males 2 females. Let’s hope not. I haven’t seen any bullying.

 

Feohw
Someone with more experience can help more then me. I do want a couple of BR!

 

I hope somebody can help. I'm getting worried.

So rapid breathing, turning blackish, staying away from other rams. I will test water today after I do a WC.

Okay I just tested the water.

PH 6.5

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 8

The fish is hiding behind a large piece of cork bark. It is still blackish, and is hovering just above the bottom. His caudal and pectoral fins are resting on the sand, although his body is just above it. Very rapid gill movement. Plz help i have no idea what to do.

 

It looks like he has stress coloration on. Can you separate for a but and see how it does?

 

I suppose I could. I have a spare 10 gallon with a sponge filter. I don't think that's big enough though. Should I just try it?

I am also leaving for the weekend, so I can't do daily water changes. Is using media from the 75 gallon filter pretty foolproof? I have a cascade 200 I could put it into.

 

He is looking very stressed to me. He looks like my Apistogramma did after he had been bullied, which would lead me to believe it could be a dominance issue. If it's any more than that, unfortunately (fortunately) I don't have too much experience with most diseases. I would separate personally.

Unfortunately when rams hover on the bottom like that, very often they don't make it, though there was recently a case where they turned out fine in the end, I'll try to search to see what was done there. I would transfer to the 10g if the sponge filter is cycled.

 

BTW my 75 gallon is heated 74.5 is this too cold for them? Sorry for duplicate posts, post editing is not working for me right now.

The filter is not cycled. There isn't even water in the 10.

 

74.5 is perfectly fine, I had mine at 73 for a while

 

Being that it is the only one with stress, and it is by itself always, I think it is dominance. I am working on building a rack for 2 20s a 40B and a 10. I have a stand for the 10 right now. He can stay there until I get a 20 or 40 set up.

Should I just leave him for the weekend? I am torn right now. Risk him dying of ammonia poisoning, or risk him dying of stress/bulling? I think I will go with ammonia poisoning, because he could get a disease and give it to the other fish.

Is there any way to detox ammonia without buying anything? I leave tomorrow morning, and the water is uncycled. I will use water from the 75, and I can add media from it. My mom is gonna be here, so as long as the DIY ammonia detox is simple to dose, I can ask her to do it.

Fortunately, I do pretty good under pressure so this isn't as terrible as could be. At least I can think straight. I really need a recipe for DIY ammonia detox, if it even exists.

 

Is there any way to detox ammonia without buying anything? I leave tomorrow morning, and the water is uncycled. I will use water from the 75, and I can add media from it. My mom is gonna be here, so as long as the DIY ammonia detox is simple to dose, I can ask her to do it.

Without buying a product like prime I don't see any way to deal with ammonia other than water changes. Which is why prime can be handy in times like this.

Is your mom able to test the water and do water changes accordingly? The problem is that rams aren't very suited for cycling tanks. So I would be doing water tests every now and then, then I would do a water change when the ammonia levels indicate its necessary. So I would likely be doing them daily. Without you there that may be a problem if your mom isn't able to do that.

And yes, it would be a good idea to add a bit of media from the other tank too.

 

No, my mom cannot test and do changes. I wish there was a way I could have daily changes done.

I have a bunch of salvinia minima in there, and some brazilian pennywort. Hopefully they can use up the ammonia the ram makes. I will add media from the 75. Ugh I wish I had prime.

'Fate rarely calls upon us at a moment of our choosing.' - Optimus Prime

Actually, our local pet shop closes in 2 hours. They carry water conditioners, I hope they have seachem prime or something like it. Is API ammo-lock any good???

 

No, my mom cannot test and do changes. I wish there was a way I could have daily changes done.

How long will you be gone?

Actually, our local pet shop closes in 2 hours. They carry water conditioners, I hope they have seachem prime or something like it. Is API ammo-lock any good???

Hopefully they will have prime. As I understand it, API ammo-lock will lock up the ammonia so that it won't be harmful, but it doesn't allow the bacteria to break it down. So the bacteria colony won't develop. That will mean your tank won't cycle which can be a problem if the ram is going to be there for quite a while. But if its stay there won't be too long, and/or there is no prime at the shop then ammo-lock should do its job well enough.

 

I will be gone starting tomorrow morning and until Sunday evening.

The petshop did not have prime however they did have some Kent Marine betta bowl essentials, and it says it detoxes ammonia, I just hope it's not false advertising. They did not have ammo lock either. The top of the tank is almost completely covered in salvinia minima, and I have a piece of brazilian pennywort in there. I will get a sponge from the 75 soon, and put my HOB in the 10.

Update:

He is still hanging out at the bottom of the QT tank, however his breathing has slowed down from super fast fast. He is getting color back to.

 

Update:

He was exploring a little this morning, but now he is resting on a piece of decor. The black has faded so now his head is dark grey, and his body has grey vertical stripes. He is not eating, and is still breathing fast but not as fast as before. Maybe 1.5 seconds between each breath. Yesterday I got some API Stresscoat+ and have been dosing that. In a few hours I will dose the ammonia detox, and tomorrow I will have my mom dose some.

The problem is, the detox is designed for betta 'bowls'(it's all that they had) and so I am supposed to dose more than whats in the entire bottle for 10 gallons. The ram is not eating, and so is theoretically not producing much ammonia, and with the plants and media from the 75 gallon, I think it will be okay however I will dose half the detox today and half tomorrow.

 

The ram died while I was gone this weekend. How should I disinfect the tank and equipment?