Male Blue Ram

[Murpheus]

Hi there.

I have a pair of blue rams in my 50gal community & over the last couple of days the male has been out of sorts. He's just lying on the bottom of the tank, moving very little & seems to be breathing very fast.

The tank has been running for 6 months (I've had the rams from pretty much the start) & I do weekly 30% water changes with the most recent being on Friday. All water parameters are spot on.

Tankmates are a pair of kribs, 6 swartzi corys, a leopard frog plec, a brown spot plec, 3 zebra botia, 1 male paradise fish 3 rainbow fish & 1 purple spotted gudgeon, & they all appear fine. I haven't added any new fish in around a month.

Any ideas or assistance very much appreciated.

 

[thegnu]

hello, what are the nitrate numbers exactly please

 

[WILDER]

Need to look at your water stats.
Bacterial to parasite, has the fish bloated up or darkened in colour.
Any flicking and rubbing.
Any other symtoms to go on.
Check the gills over.

 

[Murpheus]

Thanks for the replies. Water stats are......

Ph - 7.0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20
Temp - 80F

He is his usual colouration or if anything a little lighter & his gills appear normal. There are no other symptoms visible on either him or any of his tankmates. At the minute he is sitting on top of one of my internal canister filters with the female ram swimming around close by.

I have done nothing different this week than I usually do & up til now the only problem I've had was an outbreak of whitespot about 3 months ago which was successfully treated.

I've fed the tank a few shelled & mushed garden peas incase of constipation.

Any ideas?

 

[WILDER]

Hard to say as being pale can be many things from stress, parasites to bacterial.
To be honest he not likely to make it.
Can you issolate him.
Parasites like whitespot can cause bacterial infections.