Blue Ram bloated, lethargic, no appetite and turned black.

[Christiannakyri]

Hello,

Please can I get some help with how to help my blue ram.
I have a 120L tank with 2 rams (male and female), 12 guppies, 1 rainbow shark and 6 neon tetras. I have had all of these fish for around 2 weeks. Everyone has been very health, busy and eating. I noticed the female blue ram become very vibrant around her belly and thought she could be breeding with the male as she was cleaning areas of the tank and becoming territorial. This was around 5/6 days ago. The next day she wasn’t so vibrant but her stomach started to grow. I assumed she was carrying eggs. She kept getting bigger and bigger. She was her usual self up until this evening around 7pm when she became very lethargic and our rainbow shark would chase her away a couple times. Each time she was chased she turned darker and darker. I have isolated her out of the tank as I didn’t want her to be harassed by other fish and stress her out further. She isn’t moving or eating. I’ve tried to give her peas as recommended to see if it’s bloat but she has no appetite. I feel bad for the male ram as he is swimming up and down looking for her.
Please can you give any advise on what to do in this situation. I’m very worried she won’t make it through the night.

A couple days ago one of the guppies got a fungal infection (furry fin) so we isolated him and treated him and the other tank mates incase the infection got around. I’m not sure if this could have any affect on our blue ram.

Any help would be very appreciated!

Thank you,

Christianna

 

[Deleted member 149562]

Can you confirm your latest water chemistry figures please to start with along with the water temperature & pH. Can you also confirm the aquarium was fully cycled before adding fish and that you did not add everyone at the same time

The stocking concerns me too tbh...Rainbow Sharks generally need alot more space, they are also too big to be sharing an aquarium with Neons, Guppies and Rams, and Rams will attack long finned Guppies.

 

[mbsqw1d]

Agree, the stocking is a concern. When rams are breeding they become very territorial and with that rainbow shark knocking about, they'll fight and I'm guessing the rainbow shark is winning the battles. If she can't hold her territory then she'll become incredibly stressed. Would be at all possible to rehome / take back the shark at least?

 

[Christiannakyri]

Hello,

Please can I get some help with how to help my blue ram.
I have a 120L tank with 2 rams (male and female), 12 guppies, 1 rainbow shark and 6 neon tetras. I have had all of these fish for around 2 weeks. Everyone has been very health, busy and eating. I noticed the female blue ram become very vibrant around her belly and thought she could be breeding with the male as she was cleaning areas of the tank and becoming territorial. This was around 5/6 days ago. The next day she wasn’t so vibrant but her stomach started to grow. I assumed she was carrying eggs. She kept getting bigger and bigger. She was her usual self up until this evening around 7pm when she became very lethargic and our rainbow shark would chase her away a couple times. Each time she was chased she turned darker and darker. I have isolated her out of the tank as I didn’t want her to be harassed by other fish and stress her out further. She isn’t moving or eating. I’ve tried to give her peas as recommended to see if it’s bloat but she has no appetite. I feel bad for the male ram as he is swimming up and down looking for her.
Please can you give any advise on what to do in this situation. I’m very worried she won’t make it through the night.

A couple days ago one of the guppies got a fungal infection (furry fin) so we isolated him and treated him and the other tank mates incase the infection got around. I’m not sure if this could have any affect on our blue ram.

Any help would be very appreciated!

Thank you,

Christianna

Can you confirm your latest water chemistry figures please to start with along with the water temperature & pH. Can you also confirm the aquarium was fully cycled before adding fish and that you did not add everyone at the same time

The stocking concerns me too tbh...Rainbow Sharks generally need alot more space, they are also too big to be sharing an aquarium with Neons, Guppies and Rams, and Rams will attack long finned Guppies.

Thank you for your reply. Yes I can confirm the aquarium was fully cycled before adding any fish. It was cycled for over a month with live plants and levels were checked too. Not everyone was added at the same time.
Water temp is currently at 27 degrees Celsius.
Nitrate: 20
Nitrite: 0.5
PH: 8
GH: 180
KH: 240

We’ve started 20% water changes to bring down these levels as they’re a bit high and of course the GBR are very sensitive. We won’t be feeding the tank for a couple days as we are trying to bring the ammonia levels down and she has not been eating anyway.

Today I went and bought a nursery for the female BR so she can rest away from the other fish and have the correct filtration. I’m unable to tell if she is pregnant or is just bloated. Her belly grew within just a couple of days. Is it normal to happen that quickly if she is pregnant? Her colour has lightened up a little but she is still very dark and lethargic.

I wasn’t made aware about the rainbow shark not being good with smaller fish. We bought ours the same time we got the neons and they hadn’t mentioned they shouldn’t go together. He usually keeps himself to himself and doesn’t bother anyone. I was only made aware that it’s only one per tank. The two rams have also been very good so far. They stick together and will only stand their ground if they’re being chased.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

The shark needs to go back to the shop as he will outgrow the aquarium and when he is growing he will likely snack on the other fish, sorry but he really needs to go back as unsuitable for the size of aquarium and mix of species.

Your nitrite needs to be zero along with the ammonia.

I suspect the stocking is not helping, its too high for the aquarium with that shark. Any illness or health issues will be exacerbated by the stocking. I would suggest doing minimum 50% water changes daily for a week, then 50% once a week (on same day each week) to get a decent routine. Take the shark back, if they refuse you will need to rehome it. The shark is likely the cause of the Ram issues....fish bully after dark alot of the time when owners are asleep.

The shark has got to go, I'm sorry.

@Caesar
@itiwhetu
@Wills
@Fishmanic

 

[itiwhetu]

Your pH is way too high for these fish, they have to be kept in acid tanks around 6.6 - 6.8. They will suffer at pH 8

 

[Christiannakyri]

Agree, the stocking is a concern. When rams are breeding they become very territorial and with that rainbow shark knocking about, they'll fight and I'm guessing the rainbow shark is winning the battles. If she can't hold her territory then she'll become incredibly stressed. Would be at all possible to rehome / take back the shark at leas

Your pH is way too high for these fish, they have to be kept in acid tanks around 6.6 - 6.8. They will suffer at pH 8

The shark needs to go back to the shop as he will outgrow the aquarium and when he is growing he will likely snack on the other fish, sorry but he really needs to go back as unsuitable for the size of aquarium and mix of species.

Your nitrite needs to be zero along with the ammonia.

I suspect the stocking is not helping, its too high for the aquarium with that shark. Any illness or health issues will be exacerbated by the stocking. I would suggest doing minimum 50% water changes daily for a week, then 50% once a week (on same day each week) to get a decent routine. Take the shark back, if they refuse you will need to rehome it. The shark is likely the cause of the Ram issues....fish bully after dark alot of the time when owners are asleep.

The shark has got to go, I'm sorry.

@Caesar
@itiwhetu
@Wills
@Fishmanic

Thank you for your concern on the shark. I will have to rethink his home.

I don’t believe we have too many fish for our tank as there is plenty of space and many hiding spaces. We were assured by professionals with high experience that our space is suitable.

As I said we are working on getting all those levels down, along with the PH with the daily water changes.

The main concern here is the female GBR. The shark is definitely not the cause of what’s going on with her. She’s either pregnant or bloated and unwell. Any advice on how to tell these apart would be appreciated. I’m not sure how long it takes for her belly to grow when pregnant but it grew in the space of around 5 days.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I would suggest that you visit your water company's website and get a hardness report off the website....I say hardness as that is generally what they will call it but it also tells you the complete chemistry of the water from your tap. When finding the report you will need to type in your postcode. It will tell you the tap pH an everything you need to know, including if there is ammonia at source or phospates etc.

Once you get the report onscreen, can you screeshot it and post it to this thread and then we can decide which fish are suited to your water supply

Not every fish will survive or thrive in every water chemistry type, you need to match your fish to your tap water tolerances, not just buy fish and force them to tolerate your tap water.

The vendors of the fish you bought are unlikely to know the full chemistry of your water as I doubt they asked for your water company name and postcode in order to check. Try not to take everything a shopworker tells you as carte blanche....that rarely ever happens to be true.

@emeraldking

 

[Essjay]

We were assured by professionals with high experience that our space is suitable.

If these professionals were fish store workers, you need to be aware that the majority of fish store workers haven't a clue and will make up anything in order to get a sale.

With a location of London, your water is likely to be much harder than the 180 ppm you listed - London is renowned for having very hard water. If that was the reading from a strip tester, many only read as high as 180 ppm, and anything higher still reads as 180 ppm. Your pH suggests water harder than 180 ppm as well. Please take wasmewasntit's advice and check with your water company's website.

Rams must have soft acidic water to thrive. Neon tetras also need soft water. Few shop workers will tell you this, even if they are aware of it, which most aren't.
But guppies need hard water so they should be OK.