German blue rams change colors?

[Chenay83]

I have had my GBR for 5 months and all of sudden he has turned dark. Almost purple, he has been like this for 2 weeks. What's going on?

 

[k.mascher86]

Is it with any other fish? what sex is it? males will often change color to show dominace in tanks

 

[Chenay83]

It's a male. I have him and another GBR and some peaceful cichlids.

 

[Borderlesscott]

It could be a stress marks you are seeing or dominance, post a pic if you can. Possibly either he has matured and is showing he is top dog or some other fish has become dominant and the ram is stressed, if it is stress he probably won't last to long, rams and stress don't go well together.

 

[Chenay83]

He's the one in the back. He pretty much stays there that's his general area.

 

[Chenay83]

The female in the tank has a bright red stomach. Is he changing colors for her?

 

[Freakgecko91]

Can you give a full stock list? Like what species, what sex they are, and how many of them? This will help a ton

 

[Chenay83]

He was in an overstocked tank. But I just moved him to and 20 gal w/ female and 3 yellow labs and a dojo. So I am hoping for the best.

 

[Freakgecko91]

That doesn't answer the question lol not to mention that you just moved them into a tank with fish they really shouldn't be in with, nor should yellow labs be kept in a 20 gallon. From your description, it sounds EXTREMELY stressed out. These fish are highly susceptible to being bullied by larger fish. So what is the stock of the original tank. This will help to determine if stress is the cause or something else entirely. Also, what are the parameters of the tank (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH)?

Not trying to be mean or rude, these answers are needed to be able to properly assess the situation

 

[garfy]

Agreed and yellow labs will likely kill the rams in the long run.

 

[Chenay83]

Sorry about that I'm a little distracted. nitrates 22
ph 7.0
everything else is 0
The labs are little more than fry at the moment. They will moved next week. Why is he the only GBR that is acting this way?

 

[Freakgecko91]

Like I've said twice now, it depends on what the stocking of the original tank was...it may have been another ram doing it, it may have been some of your other fish. Without a stock list, we're left to assumptions....

 

[Chenay83]

I'll try but I'm not 100% sure what's in there. People seem to think I run some kind of fish pound or something so they just drop off their unwanted fish. I left out of town for a few days and came home to 12 threadfin cichlids and 12 pearlscale cichlids, 2 ghost catfish, 3 frogs,5 I not sure if they are barbs or tetra, 7 labs, 3 acei, a huge oscar, a dojo and about 10 other fish.

 

[Chenay83]

Oh I forgot to mention that they were all put in my 55gal.

 

[garfy]

My word that's quite a collection.You need a sign out front that says please no more fish lol

 

[Freakgecko91]

Well the carpintis may be the problem, or the Oscar. Basically, my advice would be to take almost all of these, find a good LFS, and trade them in! Start all new and base your stock around the rams, or whatever you decide to keep. All of the cichlids you mentioned obtain good size, even the threadfins get up to 7 inches. The carpintis (pearlscale) are similar to Texas cichlids and can be quite aggressive. You'll have a bloodbath on your hands if you don't get rid of most of them. Just my own advice, but it is very evident that your GBR is being bullied

 

[Chenay83]

There is one on the front door my husband said he took them because the people begged him. I started taking them in because I had 2 20 gals, a 10 gal and a 55 gal at the time and I had a total of 6 or 7 fish between all of them. Word speads like you won't believe. I ended up having people with massive setups dropping off fish because they wanted out of the hobby and people who got in the hobby who weren't willing to do the work.

 

[Freakgecko91]

Yeah, you could literally do a complete setup with money from the exchange with a LFS. You could also post ads on Craigslist or the classified page here if you're willing to ship

 

[Chenay83]

I don't know anything about shipping and we only have 1 LFS around here and its 45 mins away. I have put them on craigslist but they only want them if they are free, nevermind that it cost you to feed them and what not. However it has gotten to the point where I have given them away just to keep them from living in poor conditions.

 

[Freakgecko91]

Giving some away may be your best option. But try calling that LFS and seeing if they will take/buy them. If so, a 45 minute drive for a decent amount of store credit wouldn't be too bad IMO, but then again, I am a bit fish crazy