Colour Of Faeces

[mark4785]

About 1 week ago I bought a female German Blue Ram (GBR) and placed it in a 60 litre quarantine aquarium where it will continue to stay until I'm confident it's a healthy fish with no diseases.

On the 2nd day after being introduced to the aquarium a sore developed on the lip which I chose not to treat because it wasn't an open sore and from experience, such sores heal and don't need require medical intervention. Now the sore has completely disappeared.

Later on, possibly the 5th day of being in the tank, I noticed she was shaking and bumping herself violently on a piece of bog wood after having eat a large bloodworm. She was exhibiting this behaviour straight after eating it and as she was expelling faeces. The faeces are white in colour (resembling a smooth white coloured egg).

So my question is, should the faeces be white and can violent shaking occur if there is some sort of problem that causes faeces to be the wrong colour? From experience, GBR faeces should be black/brown right?

Picture taken of GBR today, with faeces:

Note that the colours of the ram and surroundings don't resemble what it should look like to the eye for some reason.

Water Stats:
PH: 7.4
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm

All fish in the 60 litre have a good appetite.

Mark.

 

[myrtle]

Well, I've heard of The Colour of Magic....

Anyway, as far as I know white faeces is a sign of internal parasties/bacteria but I don't know about the shaking, maybe it hurt to pass?

 

[mark4785]

Well, I've heard of The Colour of Magic....

What do you mean by that?

 

[myrtle]

Sorry, it's a book by Terry Pratchett and the title of your post made me think of it, totally irrelevant

 

[mark4785]

I described the faeces has egg-like a few days ago and now I'm more convinced than ever that the white trail near the anal fin of my GBR was one of many eggs:

Pic 1:

Pic 2:

Is there a way to know if these eggs are fertile? They were laid today (about 2 weeks after the female Ram was placed into a tank on it's own).

Does anybody know how long it will take for them to hatch? If they don't hatch over a given acceptable time range I'll know to remove them to stop them from rotting.

Mark.

 

[myrtle]

Excellent news, not an illness then?! I've never kept GBRs but as a general rule of thumb (and therefore not always accurate) is if they stay white then they are infertile, if they change colour then they're fertile. My angels eggsalways stayed white and then fungussed as they were infertile whereas my Celebes became darker as the fry inside developed. Hopefully someone with experience of breeding GBRs will be along soon.
Jo

 

[OldMan47]

If you do not have a male GBR in that tank, those eggs will be sterile. Ramirazae are very nice fish but any egg laying must be fertilized by a male to be
viable. If you cannot provide that in your own tank, you must regard egg laying as nothing much more than practice.
What is it that you really want to know MArk?

 

[Ostara]

The white bump in the first picture is neither feces nor an egg but rather her breeding tube, which will always be visible for a few days before she lays eggs. Unless you actually saw white mucous-y feces I wouldn't be concerned about parasites.

 

[anon02]

As for the rubbing, my rams also do this but only when they eat bloodworm, another thing is that they spit a lot of food out before re gorging on it, I think it`s part of how they feed in the wild after all thay are earth eaters, but like you I will keep them in quarentine for at least a month. Fascinating little fish though and lovely to look at

 

[mark4785]

As for the rubbing, my rams also do this but only when they eat bloodworm, another thing is that they spit a lot of food out before re gorging on it, I think it`s part of how they feed in the wild after all thay are earth eaters, but like you I will keep them in quarentine for at least a month. Fascinating little fish though and lovely to look at

Is there any explanation for why they rub when eating bloodworm?

What is it that you really want to know MArk?

What do you mean?