German Blue Ram In Need Of Urgent Help!

[Harri]

Evening all,

I have a female GBR'S in a bad way at the moment. She's been the tank stalwart up to this point and has seen out three males over the last four months.

The last male I added was fine for around a month but then started to get listless, increasingly bloated, breathing exceptionally hard, eyes bulging and eventually died. The deterioration was over the course of 5-7 days.

Now my lovely female is very sick. Same symptoms as the male but also has white stringy faeces and seems to have white spots, one over her eye and one on the corner of her mouth.

I was thinking some kind of internal parasite? Any ideas as to what this could be? Can it be treated?

There are also two cardinals a a few shrimp in the tank, but that's it. Water is good, ammonia nil, nitrites nil, nitrates 5-10.

Thanks

 

[crazyforcordoras]

Temp of the tank?

 

[Harri]

81 degrees

 

[Livewire88]

Could you tell us what your water stats are? ie what is the PH, GH, Amonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate levels.

I would assume your filter is fully cycled so the Ammonia and Nitrite should be at zero.

Rams are not that easy to keep if you don't provide them with the correct conditions, and they will gradually get ill and die.

 

[Harri]

Yes, it's fully cycled.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10

She's been fine for for months, perfectly healthy. It seems that whatever the last male had, it was contagious and now she has it too.

 

[Livewire88]

Cool thanks, what test kit are you using to read your nitrates?

Do you know what the PH level of your tap water is? also if you do not have a GH testing kit are you aware if your local tap water is on the hard or soft side?

 

[Harri]

It's the API master test kit.

My water is on the harder side of what a GBR'S would like usually, but these GBR'S were bred and kept in harder water.

Just noticed that her anus is bulging as well...

 

[Livewire88]

Ok, in my experience with rams is that they do not last very long if kept in hard water, even if its what they have been bred in.

I had more luck and even had some breed in super soft RO water (which had a re-mineral mix added)

And I think you are right it sound like she has an internal parasite, Wilder should be along to offer more specific advice shortly, I don't like to use meds in my tanks. Good luck.

 

[Harri]

Thanks livewire.

I know they're a sensitive fish in any case but this female did breed with the first male I had.

Just a quick question: is it likely that this parasite will remain in the tank following the unfortunately inevitable death of this GBR?

 

[Livewire88]

Depends if you have other fish in the tank, I have been led to believe that parasites need a host (a fish) to feed off in order to survive. So if the tank is free of fish when the GBR does die the parasites should die off within a week due to being without a host to feed from.

 

[Harri]

Ok, thanks. There are two cardinal tetras in there at the moment. I really don't know what to do with them!

 

[Harri]

Unfortunately, my GBR was dead when I got up this morning. Noticed that she had a whitish patch on the side of her head too.

Two cardinals and three shrimp left now...is there anything I can do to stop this parasite attacking the cardinals?

 

[fluttermoth]

I'd just like to say that this may not be parasites; rams are notoriously difficult fish to keep and they're bred in the far east with a lot of hormones to get them to colour up at a young age, which tends to weaken them, so they very often don't last long

Watch the remaining fish closely and treat if they show symptoms at any point.