German blue Rams problems...............

[Alien_spawn]

Erm a couple of weeks ago I bought 3 of these fish 2 females and 1 male. Unfortunetly the male hassled one female to her death. He never bothered the other female, this week he started having a go at the remaining female, she too died.

The male is the only Ram left in the tank, I would like to get some more (2 more), does anyone have any advice into introducing them back in without the same thing re-ocurring

The tank is a 4ft with plenty of rocks/caves etc to hide

Cheers

AS

 

[Cian McLiam]

My advice would be to treat Rams as you would Discus. Find as much as you can about Discus and simply insert the name 'Ram' where appropriate (except for breeding info ). Just because they are cheaper, it doesnt mean they are any way easier, most of the far eastrn bred fish in Europe are lucky to be alive in the store, never mind the journey home and introduction to your tank.

Look out for highly coloured, fattened Czech or German fish, check the gills arent puffed out and both are used at all times. If any fish are using just one gill, dont buy fish from that tank, this could be gill worms, flukes, bacteria and other nasties.
Rams dont tolerat medications well, so its very important to buy fully healthy stock.

Insist that they add ammo-lock or zeolite to the water, ammonia build up in the transport water does great damage to these fish. Acclimatise them over at least an hour, replacing a half cup of water every ten minutes with tank water. Leave the lights off for the next 24 hours at least. Just before you release the new fish, feed the other fish to keep them occupied. Let the Rams out and leave them to themselves for the next day or two, feeding is not necessary and the frenzy will stress them.

Good luck

Ken

 

[Alien_spawn]

cheers for advice Ken

One question I have why "Leave the lights off for the next 24 hours at least"?

sorry to be a pain just want to know why lol!!

 

[Cian McLiam]

Darkness is comforting and less stressful for many animals and fish, with the lights on they feel exposed, easily spotted by a predator. Until they are familiar with all the hiding places available to them, its best to leave the light off so they can explore and feel less threatened.


Ken

 

[Alien_spawn]

I guess that Rams are more sensitive to this? I've always kept the light off for 2hrs before switching back on after new fish. Do you do this (24hrs)with all your new introduced fish?

Or do you think that because of what happened to the other two, and the more aggressive one being still alive. that in this case it best done this way?


loads of questions I know

 

[iloveyou]

i never have done that with fish.. thats a good idea tho.. i think ill start trying that.. i went to buy some bolivian rams today... all they had was german rams, butterfly rams, and blue rams... wasnt sure if the blue rams were bolivian.. but they raised the price from last week and i didnt want to spend $10 per fish......

hope u have better luck with the new girls u get for your male

 

[Cian McLiam]

I normally do this with all new fish, I dont buy new fish regularly since Im down to just the two tanks, but with each new fish, I leave the lights off for 24 hours but have the room lights on. I would have just a table lamp or somthing similar on when taking the fish out of the cooler bag I use for transport.

Shock from bright lights after being transported is hugely underestimated IMO, especially when fish are taken from a dark bag and held high under strong lights so the person can have a look at them. The pupil in a fishes eye reacts much much slower to light than our own and it can tak hours for them to adjust, so light changes should be one as gradually as possible until the fish are settled in and secure.

Stress and ammonia in transport water would be the two main suspects in your case, but far east fish from large fish farms can cary latent parasites that only attack when the fish is weakend due to transport/adjustment/bullying stress. If I were buying Rams, I would buy two more than required to account for losses because they can be so weak.

Ken

EDIT: Sorry for the atrocious spelling!

 

[Alien_spawn]

Cheers for that tip, I'm going to do that from now on