German Blue Rams not eating and swollen abdomen

[skaggerik]

Good Evening,

I have two rather small German Blue Rams from a well known seller and breeder in Sweden. I bought four, the others two are lively and a little bigger. I've had them for about a week.
I noticed that they did not eat and that they were swollen around the abdomen. I suspected constipation and added epsom salts. This was yesterday.

Today they look a little worse, they did not eat dry food today either. The scales do not stand out, but it does not feel very far away. I tested with frozen brine shrimp, which they ate. I have given a short term bath with Sera Bactopur direct, and put them in quarantine with a normal dose of Bactopur direct (antibiotics, nifurpirinol).

Ammonium and nitrite = 0
Nitrate about 10 ppm
50% water change 1 time / week
Temp 26 ° C, pH 6.7 KH 4 dKH
Feeding JBL Gala flakes

Thoughts? Ideas? Could it be worth trying any other drugs?

Erik

 

[itiwhetu]

Your tank is a little cool for Rams. Rams tend to like water in the high 20's. Is there tank fully planted, these guys need lots of plants to make them feel safe, they will quickly go off their food if they get stressed at all.

 

[skaggerik]

Your tank is a little cool for Rams. Rams tend to like water in the high 20's. Is there tank fully planted, these guys need lots of plants to make them feel safe, they will quickly go off their food if they get stressed at all.

The breeder had them at 25 C. Which have worked well. I can turn it up to 27 and see what they say. The tank is heavily planted with large Amazon swords.

 

[itiwhetu]

The breeder had them at 25 C. Which have worked well. I can turn it up to 27 and see what they say. The tank is heavily planted with large Amazon swords.

I am surprised he had them that cool, but there you go, so it is not temperature and your other parameters look fine. So something must be stressing them.
Do you play loud music, are there doors being banged, is their tank somewhere that they would see a lot of movement from people.

 

[skaggerik]

I am surprised he had them that cool, but there you go, so it is not temperature and your other parameters look fine. So something must be stressing them.
Do you play loud music, are there doors being banged, is their tank somewhere that they would see a lot of movement from people.

No loud music and I live alone. I can't really seem to find a reson for them to become sick. I just saw some **** on the bottom of the quarantine tank, which made me happy. We'll see how they look like in the morning.

 

[skaggerik]

Update:
Today, one of them ate flake food. Both hade some frozen brine shrimp, but very little.

 

[Colin_T]

Pictures of the fish?
What does their poop look like?
Stringy white poop is a sign of an internal problem (bacterial, protozoan or worms). Coloured poop is fine.

The following link has info about treating fish with stringy white poop.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

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