My Poor Ram

[Katster]

i was just writign my first post about my sick fish which in the last 5 minutes has died

im unsure weather her death was caused by being the lowest of the pecking order or somthing more sinister.. a few hours ago she was at the bottom of the tank panting, being quite still, i let her be for a while and the next thing i saw her being blown around in the current created by my filter, i rang my friend who frequents these forums and i isolated her, before her death, once seperated she had trouble staying upright and kept appearing to be tryign to jump out of the water, she also had what looked like internal bleeding along her back under her top fin, does this sound liek a death caused by being beaten up or disease or parasite?

her tank mates were 2 male rams, another female ram, 2 bristlenose catfish and a male betta.

ph-7, nitrite 0-0.25, hardness 140, ammonia 0-0.5ppm

i believe that shes the girl i added yesterday, unsure because both females were too similar.

 

[trew]

its odd but it sounds like injury and then it was infected how big is the
tank?

sorry for her/his death

 

[Katster]

hey thanks for the reply, its 40l

now im stressing out that my other fish dont look well, im sure that im being paranoid tho hrmmm

 

[catxx]

your tank sounds a little on the weeny side for that many rams.

i'm not sure what caused her death though, sounds like a number of things could have been responsible.

how long has the tank been set up? did she look fine yesterday? did you only get her yesterday? she could have come with a bug in which case maybe take her back to where you got her from and demand a refund.

 

[Katster]

its been set up now for only 2 weeks, i was actually just thinking tonight, whenever my dad used to set up a tank we'd always have a death within 2 weeks, guess it runs in the family, i just noticed though, its been a warm day down here in melbourne today, our air conditioner has packed up and the water which usually sits around 26 has jumped upto 30, i put a jug of cool water in to cool it down, its down to 28 now.

every aquarium that i have been to has assured me that 4 rams in a tank of my size is perfectly fine, there all quite small, around 1- 1.5cm body length (not including tail) ... perhaps the aquariums were jsut tryign to sell me more fish. would my male golden ram prefer one girl to another??

and yes, fine yesterday, baught her yesterday, now 10:26 the next day

 

[catxx]

aquariums are always trying to flog as many fish as possible hehe! i put a pair of german blue rams (same as golden, just a different colour) in my brothers 15 us gallon (about 56 litresish), wouldn't put any more than that in there though.

i'm by no means as expert though.

temperature fluctuations won't do fish any good though, although rams can cope with a temp of 30, suddenly jumping to that will put them into shock, they're very sensitive to water conditions.

you may well have just bought a sick fish, if you still have the body, take it back.

and keep an eye on the betta in with cichlids, especially if the cichlids start to pair up, they can get a bit aggressive then.

 

[Katster]

yeah im worried aobut the betta too, he got some fin rot when i first put him in, its cleared up but he has half the tail he had before, and the last 3 days or so his tummy has become swolen, like he has eggs, but obviousoly, being male, the're not eggs, constipation perhaps? or could he be tryign to beef himself up for non existant females? his still very active and is eatign well

ive had him for 2 years in a small tank with no filtration, just a small air pump

one of my male rams is a german blue, his the prettyset thing, although the smaller golden ram the the obviously dominant one, the golden ram has the brightest face and longest fins ive seen on a golden ram, his quite lovely, i'll post some pics when i get my hands on a camera if your interested?

 

[catxx]

we always like pics here!

try feed your betta some cooked shelled garden pea asap.
he probably just needs a big poop!

 

[Katster]

a pea?
he'll eat peas?
as in go down to the vegie patch, pick a pea, cook it .. and he will eat it?

what would have caused it? because my friends betta thats in a 100l tank with 4 girls has the same thing

 

[Katster]

ok so i just saw gerome the betta do a small poo, but it was cremeish, fish poo is normally dark is it not?

 

[catxx]

hmm. depends what you're feeding him!
yes, get a frozen garden pea, just a single one, cook it, take off the shell, and chop it into little bite size pieces, helps cure constipation.

the girls go big like that with eggs
the boys just get full up of poo!

 

[Katster]

thanks for the help! hes refused to eat the pea, although he did attack it once
then gave up. his looking better already, still a bit round aroudn the middle but much better and much more active, ive read a couple of things online that say to fast them for 24-48 hours so im goign to wait till the bulge goes down then get him some brine shrimp

good idea?

 

[tttnjfttt]

Sometimes fasting will help. However, i would not use brine shrimp. Try the pea again in a few days, and cut it into smaller pieces I have cut one pea into 1/8 before, depending on the fish. If that doesnt work, you can always use daphnia. A last resort would be a bath in epsom salt water.

 

[Katster]

nooo my male golden ram now has a chunk out of his tail and his tummy dosnt look full, neither does the remaining females !!!