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German blue ram ill


Jimmy-1

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Can anyone help me please? I have a German blue ram and in the last 2 days his eyes have turned black and seems to be gasping for air and always sitting at top of the tank but all other fish are fine

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Can anyone help me please? I have a German blue ram and in the last 2 days his eyes have turned black and seems to be gasping for air and always sitting at top of the tank but all other fish are fine

This is in a freshwater tank right? I dont want to sound offensive or anything. Only asking because you're a new member with a low post count so I'm not sure if you're just new to saltwater or just new to fish.

 

As with anything, start with your basic parameters (ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates) and I hope this fish is not in a salt tank.

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looking at some of your other posts, I can see you do have a FW tank but do seem to be new to keeping fish all together (assumption)

 

This fish is incredibly hard to keep in poor conditions and needs a softer water to live. Tap water is not going to work at all as it will always harbor chemicals and minerals that will kill this fish.

Given you say other fish are fine I would have to ask- what kind are they, and what are your basic parameters.

Ammonia

Nitrite

nitrate

PH

KH

GH

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+1 to other questions.

 

I have kept and bred these, not currently, but did german as well as much easier bolivian rams for several years about a decade ago.

 

These are fairly sensitive fish. They do not do well in aquariums with poor quality water. Can you describe the setup, specifically how large of tank, how long it has been setup, other tankmates and your general water change / tank maintenance routine and schedule?

 

They don't require soft water unless you're breeding them, but similar to discus, they do much better in very clean and stable water. They greatly suffer in high NO3, and any amount of nitrite or ammonia, such as what one would see when cycling a tank, will likely kill them.

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The tank has been setup for a year now it is a 16gallon tank I do a 20% water change every week and every 2nd week I clean filter/substrate and all ornaments. My water parameters are

Nitrate 10-20ppm

Nitrite 0

Ph 6.5-7

Kh 40-60

Gh 120

Ammonia 0

 

Tanks mates include

 

4 barbs

1 tetra

2 bristlenose plec( 2inch in size)

1 glass fish

4 guppys

1 boesmani rainbow

 

Sorry for the inconvenience as I know this is a saltwater forum

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RIP Sebastian

The tank has been setup for a year now it is a 16gallon tank I do a 20% water change every week and every 2nd week I clean filter/substrate and all ornaments. My water parameters are

Nitrate 10-20ppm

Nitrite 0

Ph 6.5-7

Kh 40-60

Gh 120

Ammonia 0

 

Tanks mates include

 

4 barbs

1 tetra

2 bristlenose plec( 2inch in size)

1 glass fish

4 guppys

1 boesmani rainbow

 

Sorry for the inconvenience as I know this is a saltwater forum

 

All that in a 16? Bioload seems high. Nitrates are high, too.

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Not everyone here keeps just Saltwater, but it can reduce your chances of getting good info.

 

Nitrates are a bit high for Rams, but so are your KH and GH

If those numbers are accurate you would want to reduce all three.

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Meh, nothing looks crazy. nitrate a little high, but it's not off the chart. How did you acclimate them?

 

I have no problem with them or discus in 9 dKh water provide that I keep it stable, which normally involves seasoning my water change water so there aren't large parameter swings during water changes.

 

These weren't wild ones were they?

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I acclimated my rams by keeping them in the bag in the water for 20mins then let them in the tank. My water changes have always been the same and my water levels stay the same

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SelectedByNature

I keep rams and currently have 20 something 2 month old fishes which are super cute. I have a few mating pairs of different rams.

 

I don't find them all that hard to keep but, to contradict myself within the same sentence, they do often die for (seemingly) no reason or develop illness as a much higher percentage than other commonly kept FW fishes.

 

Sad to say I've had little success with trying to save members of this species when they go downhill. 

 

As with anything else though. Quarantine and regular visual inspection. Darkened eyes and gasping seems almost like death throws though to be honest ...

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