I Could Use Your Opinions On My German Blues

I have several questions so im gonna fill you in on history first. We set up out daughters tank in august cycled till her birthdat in october. Got some koi angels, glow fish and some ottos. And then in november we ordered a pair of german blue rams. They were so cute!! They stayed in quaranine for 2 weeks.

about a week after they were in hubby did a water change and forgot to plug in heater!!! Ooh I was so mad when I finnaly figured out what was wrong after 3 DAYS!!!!! Luckly there was no casualties.....but.... chicka our little female wasnt doing so well. She turned near black. Floated sideways and wasnt eating.

I gave peas, extra blood worms and turned tank up a bit. It took a while but she finnaly started eating. Then swimming better. And now couple months later she is near white and blue is starting to come back. Only she hasnt grown near as much as BOom (male ram).

She is very aggressive at food time and her belly is turning nice and pink. Boom loves to flash his blues and swim with crest up. But they dont seem very bonded.

So my questions....one will chicka every fully mature? Could she she still breed? Booms been acting wierd and im worried he is sick. We have a cave thats slanted and kinda flat..he does a wierd body rub on it. And he does at times rub on other things. He did it once yesterday butma lot today wenmi kept main lightmoff and turned on blue glow light...whats up do you think. Gonna add 2 pics. One of boom with his cave (not body wiggling though) and one of chicka. Both were takin today and both fish are same age.

oh andits a 46g tank....and sorry for typing. Iv got a 7month old baby boy in lap and he likes to "help".

Barb-barian said:

What's your chem levels at? So people can better help

Click to expand...

temp is 79
ph is 8
ammonia0
nitraits were crud just above 0.

not sure what other numbers you need but if got a screaming babe so will be a bit before I check baxk...but let me know anyother info needed.

We will start with Boom. "Itching" or the rubbing you are noticing is a fairly common symptom for things.  The most common being Ich. So keep an eye out for white spots.  The itching isn't so bad unless he is starting to damage himself.  Jus keep an eye on him and report if he gets any other symptoms.  The Ph is pretty high for these guys so if you can get that to drop down closer to 7 would help them out.  Check on your tap water it probably has a high Ph.   Ms. chicka will not grow as big as Mr boom because the females are generally smaller than the males.  Its great to hear she has an appetite and her color is returning. Adjusting the Ph would be the biggest thing and keep up with diet plan you have going.  Best of luck.  I have a couple rams myself and love having them in my tank.  

Hmm, overall ph is a bit high.  They will likely 'survive' in a ph of 8, but definitely not thrive.  Some people will say that these conditions will shorten their life span, but idk...  You probably aren't concerned about breeding them, but they almost certainly will not spawn in that value, and if they did, the eggs would be infertile.  Do you know the gh/kh of you water?  Soft, acidic water is certainly better for them, so if you do decide that you want to try and lower the ph, it's best to do it gradually and naturally; adding indian almond leaves, more bogwood, peat moss in the filter, etc.  In the wild they live in a ph of 5 most often, but obviously for practical reasons in an aquarium, 7 should be fine.  To be totally honest, they need impeccable water quality, so I would be more concerned with that than just the ph; they need plenty of clean water through wc's, excellent filtration, a high temp, etc.  
 
As far as the flicking of 'flashing' goes, that could be an indicator of lots of things...  Internal parasites, gill flukes, ich, etc.  Just keep on eye on them.  A lot of fish are known to sometimes do this right after a wc too.