Sick Blue Ram?

[mitche8359]

Bought a blue ram a month ago and all was well. After reading a post somewhere in here, I observed my ram closely this morning. It appears to me that the fish is gasping for air. The fish acts ok otherwise, though he doesn't spook if I tap on the glass. I did add a rather large bio load a good week ago. I didn't have time to check the water params but will do so tonight if the ram still looks like it's gasping. The other fish including angels are fine. I read that high ammonia levels results in angels having a hard time breathing. A week or so ago, the heater went out and the temp dropped to a nice 72-74 temp for about five days while I looked for a thermometer. Since the temp got back up to 78. I do not use an air stone in the tank and I don't have any surface aggitation. His color is good. I have been doing a lot of tank maintenance, ie gravel cleaning, aquagardening, over the last week. The water got plenty murky though I kept adding and changing water while working.

I'm off to look up rams. Anyone have suggestions other than checking water params?

 

[webmoose]

78 is on the low side of temp for Rams. They enjoy warmer waters in teh 80's.. not sure about temp requirements for your angels and tetras though...

 

[mitche8359]

They are all from the same environment so I suspect that the Angels would be ok in warmer waters. I'll check though. I can't remember the ram acting this way when the temp was cooler.

 

[webmoose]

ya sorry.. just a comment about rams..

The ram that is gasping is likely stressed or sick. When I was trying to establish rams in my tank there was 1 that was doing that. The first one I had like that died shortly after purchase. I went and replaced him and the replacement was doing it as well. After a short time he adjusted to the new tank and settled in and stopped gasping.

having said that I've had some sick fish in the past that also gasped like that as well.

I know I wasn't really helpful.. Still hoping he gets better for you.

MOooooSe

 

[mitche8359]

Yeah he was doing really well. I don't remember him gasping before this morning, but with all the extra fish to look at I might have missed it the last couple weeks. I've not given up on him. Get the params checked out tonight and see what's going on.

 

[mitche8359]

A bit of an update. The ammonia level was at 0. I didn't really check anything else as I suspected it might have been elevated ammonia levels and when it wasn't I was surprised. I know the PH level comes out of the tap right about neutral which was the other item I suspected. With the amount of water change I did last weekend it has to be close to that. I was at the store tonight and looked at the rams in the tank. They 'gasp" a little, though I think the one I have gasps a little more. I fed the fish some mosquito larva tonight and he seemed to enjoy that. Maybe he's just a gasper.

 

[mitche8359]

I tested the rest of the water params. Ammonia was at 0, Nitrate 0, Nitrite 0, PH 7.0. I did a little more research and found out that these guys are nocturnal. Didn't find an explanation for the 'gasping' though. He is hiding out under a sword plant a lot lately. He does come out some and he eats. Color is still good. One article did mention that new fish sort of spooks rams. I doubled the fish population last week so that may be the reason for the hiding out bit..