Trouble With My Blue Dwarf Ram Cichlid

[Pockychan13]

Hey, I bought a fish tank a week and two days ago and added fish a week and a day ago. Among them is my blue dwarf ram cichlid. He was pretty playful and looked happy for the first week, but yesterday night i noticed that he was sitting at the bottom of the tank not moving much but appeared to be breathing really hard. Normally when i would feed the fish, he would be quite hungry and eat all the flakes he could, but now even when i put a flake as close to him as i can he makes no attempts to eat it. My other fish (3 guppies, 3 neon tetras, a black ghost fish, and a yo yo loach) seem to be doing alright (other than my ghost fish liking to be by the filter most of the time) and are swimming as usual. I tested ammonia and got a .3 or something like that and my ph was around a 7.8 (i think). Does anyone know whats wrong with my cichlid?

 

[mark4785]

If you are refering to the mikrogeophagus ramirezi species (german blue ram) then the 0.3 ammonia reading will be the cause of the altered breathing. The gills will likely be inflamed and red and the ammonia level will most likely be irritating the skin which is why he won't be thinking about eating.

I would do 2-3 50% water changes per day, put 3-4 times as much dechlorinater within the replacement water IF it contains anything that protects the skin (usually aloe vera is an excellent skin protector) and do not feed the fish at all until you can achieve an ammonia level of 0 ppm. The flake food that is not getting eaten will be, eventually, adding to the ammonia levels.

One thing you may also want to try is adding some form of zeolite filtration media (either in carpet/foam form or little stones) which as the effect of absorbing ammonia. Never use zeolite if you are adding any form of aquarium salt (some dechlorinators and medications contain a bit of salt) simultaneously as salt causes any absorbed ammonia to be re-released into the water.

 

[Pockychan13]

my dechlorinator has sodium thiosulfate, disodium EDTA, sodium carbinate, and polyvinylpryollidones...no mention of aloe vera. i also have cycle my nutrafin that i will be adding to the water. Also, i do have aquarium salt in my aquarium. should i add more or stop using it or use less? Im new at tropical fish keeping and im also a university student, (with a midterm in 2 hours) but i want to do my best to make sure these fish are ok. Any other suggestions general or specific? also, i think he may have eaten a piece of the aquarium salt about a week ago... i dont know if that affects things (i imagine it would)

 

[colleen0309]

Rams are sensitive to salt. Don't use it. Do lots of big water changes with dechlorinated warm water. Please take a look at the beginners resource center on this forum. Pay close attention to the Fish IN cycle. This is the situation you are now in. It can be tough, but it is do-able

 

[mark4785]

my dechlorinator has sodium thiosulfate, disodium EDTA, sodium carbinate, and polyvinylpryollidones...no mention of aloe vera. i also have cycle my nutrafin that i will be adding to the water. Also, i do have aquarium salt in my aquarium. should i add more or stop using it or use less? Im new at tropical fish keeping and im also a university student, (with a midterm in 2 hours) but i want to do my best to make sure these fish are ok. Any other suggestions general or specific? also, i think he may have eaten a piece of the aquarium salt about a week ago... i dont know if that affects things (i imagine it would)

I would remove the salt as it is no real purpose unless you are trying to kill off parasites. If the fish is ill, like you say it is, the immune system will be hindered which increases the likelihood that a parasite will cause problems for the fish. Salt, if in the water column for long periods, produces a 'super parasite' which can thrive in salty water. In short, the salt is doing you no favours and the Ram you have is likely incompatible with high concentrations of salt. Signs that the salt is affecting the fish is usually discerned if the fish is rubbing itself on objects and/or darting around; not so sure fast gill movement can be caused by salt unless you've got a high concentration.

If he has eaten a salt grain this will cause problems as the salt should ALWAYS be in the form of a liquid solution by the time it enters the water column. A grain of salt can cause severe burns when/if it makes contact with any part of a fish.

 

[Pockychan13]

alright. I have already done a 50% water change when it was first suggested Im not with him right now, but when should i do a second one? also does he have a chance of living despite his salt consumption? I believe he ate the salt on a thursday and did not show signs of trouble until yesterday night

 

[Pockychan13]

Also, if i clear out the salt, what effect will this have on the other fish (3 guppies, 3 neon tetras, a black ghost fish, and a yo yo loach)?

 

[mark4785]

alright. I have already done a 50% water change when it was first suggested Im not with him right now, but when should i do a second one? also does he have a chance of living despite his salt consumption? I believe he ate the salt on a thursday and did not show signs of trouble until yesterday night

Do the 2nd one, and if necessary, a 3rd one and so on during the same day until the ammonia level is 0 ppm. Many people are of the opinion that rams shouldn't even be placed in newly cycled aquariums as they are more susceptible to micro fluctuations in ammonia and nitrite so a visible reading of ammonia, which is what you have, should be rectified as quickly as possible.

When you replace the water ensure your replacement water is exactly the same temperature has the water you've taken out. You may think this makes things a bit tedious but health problems will arise by way of opportunistic bacteria and/or parasites if they get the chance to invade an immune system stressed by temperature change.

How many litres does your aquarium contain? The more water it contains the better because 1) ammonia will take longer to accumulate 2) the carbonate hardness (KH) and general hardness (GH) of the tank water will resemble the values of the tap (replacement) water for longer periods of time reducing the likelihood of changes in GH and KH causing stress and disease.

 

[mark4785]

Also, if i clear out the salt, what effect will this have on the other fish (3 guppies, 3 neon tetras, a black ghost fish, and a yo yo loach)?

If you remove the salt over a longer period of time they shouldn't notice a change. I've dosed my pond with salt before and up on removing it from the pond I haven't observed any problems behaviourally.

May I ask what your nitrate level is within your water? The reason I ask is, a combination of salt and high nitrate is a toxic combination for any kind of fish so if you do have say 60-80 ppm of nitrate (which in itself is fine even for your ram, contrary to popular belief) and a high salt concentration, there couldn't possibly be a more negative outcome to removing the salt.

 

[Pockychan13]

I have a 10 g tank so pretty small. I learned of the sensitiveness of my ram after i bought him, (not smart on my part) but he looked like he was doing fine. The ammonia is back at zero, but he is still pretty motionless and darker in colour then he was before. He only seems to swim when my yoyo tried to chase him. Also, my Ghost fish has also been lying at the bottom (and yes, i know the tank is too small for him(also found out after the purchases) and i will be inheriting a bigger tank for him soon.). I also have only seen my ghost fish eat once, so i tried hand feeding him and he was quite uninterested. Ill be getting blood worms tomorrow, so hopefully he will eat them. I don't have a nitrate measuring kit, only ammonia and ph

 

[mark4785]

I have a 10 g tank so pretty small. I learned of the sensitiveness of my ram after i bought him, (not smart on my part) but he looked like he was doing fine. The ammonia is back at zero, but he is still pretty motionless and darker in colour then he was before. He only seems to swim when my yoyo tried to chase him. Also, my Ghost fish has also been lying at the bottom (and yes, i know the tank is too small for him(also found out after the purchases) and i will be inheriting a bigger tank for him soon.). I also have only seen my ghost fish eat once, so i tried hand feeding him and he was quite uninterested. Ill be getting blood worms tomorrow, so hopefully he will eat them. I don't have a nitrate measuring kit, only ammonia and ph

Usually after an illness, and this especially applies to Rams, they will avoid the food they once eat and start wanting a completely different food. I'd recommend getting a selection of foods, i.e. pellets of varying sizes, flakes containing different ingredients which will enable you to work out whether hes not eating due to feeling ill OR he has got over the illness and just won't eat the food you normally provide.

If a fish is not eating it's best to decrease feeding so that when they do get better they will have a better appetite. Any fish, ill or not, will usually eat blood worms but they don't provide enough nutrition.

Best thing you could do is do proactive water changes to keep the ammonia down and introduce some form of vitamin into the water to prevent wasting/anorexia (such as a product named vitazin) while they are not eating. If you are struggling to keep the ammonia low then you seriously need to consider purchasing a larger aquarium or re-homing some of them.