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abw0004
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I would say 2 inches of varying sizes of gravel
I Can't Seem To Cure My Sick Fish
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Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
I hate to say it but it sounds like your tank's environment or water is your fish's cause of illness. HTH is mostly caused by poor environmental issues as were the worms. Your fish are too stressed to have a healthy immune system to fight off these bugs and worms. I think you need to do some serious searching within the tank to see what is causing all this stress to the fish. Medications won't work when the fish are still in the conditions that caused the stress. I would move all the fish into a separate hospital tank with water NOT from your tap and then medicate them appropriately for their conditions. If they fix in the new water, that will tell you right there your tap water is a problem to use in your tank. If they don't, you are using the wrong meds ( I made suggestions in an earlier post.) But both of these conditions are usually brought on environmental stress. It's a direct correlation.
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abw0004
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Do you think it is because of the PH difference? I don't know how it could be the environment. I upkeep the tank really well with 40% water changes every week. I have three different foods I feed the fish as well. I have tried so extrondinariky hard to make sure the fish have happy lives for 2 years now.
Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
This goes back to an earlier discussion. It may be your water. There may be something in it that you cannot test for that is stressing them out. The fact that you can't cure the problems is an indication that you are not addressing the source. Even the best diets and best care cannot overcome bad water and the diseases you seem to be having problems with are known side effects of bad water. Don't shoot the messenger ( that's me
), the fish are sending the message. I still suggest the best way to figure out if it's your water source or your tank's environment is to use a separate tank with water NOT from your regular water source ( get some bottled water at the market or your LFS if they sell gallons of water) and see if the fish respond any better. If they do, then try adding your tap water to see if they still do well. If they still do, I'd clean out your tank and reset it up because the problem is somewhere in there.There is one other possibility and that is the fish combination you have may be stressing each other out and that too could be causing your problems to not go away. The source of your problem is the key to your solution. You need to figure out what that is.
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abw0004
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Update:
I just did a Cupramine dip for all of the fish (except the pleco) of 3 drops in 2 gallons of water. Those dots on the head of my male German Blue Ram are gone after the dip. What would that mean of what it was? Everybody is still acting normal and eating just fine.
I just did a Cupramine dip for all of the fish (except the pleco) of 3 drops in 2 gallons of water. Those dots on the head of my male German Blue Ram are gone after the dip. What would that mean of what it was? Everybody is still acting normal and eating just fine.
Andy Sager
Aquarium Advice Addict
It means that you misdiagnosed the Hole in Head condition. I strongly suggest you bookmark the following page and refer to it when you think you have an issue. Chart on Fish Diseases, Symptoms and their Treatments
Proper diagnosis of a disease is key to curing the problem. Arbitrary use of medications can lead to much stronger diseases being created.
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abw0004
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Okay so I did what you suggested and the two German Blue Rams are in a clean tank with only aquarium salt. I will add medication tomorrow as I did not want to do it today and only stress them even more. The white things on his head were back so hopefully this helps
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abw0004
Aquarium Advice FINatic
Good Morning All,
I just wanted to give you an update that I lost my male German Blue Ram yesterday. The pair seemed completely fine 8 days ago when I moved them into the quarantine tank and were fine with aquarium salt. When I started to add Cupramine a few days later I noticed the female was becoming stressed either from the Cupramine, or the male chasing her all over the 10 gallon tank as I think he was in the mood to mate with her again. Since she never had any symptoms of sickness I moved her back into the main tank and when I did that, I think that emotionally destroyed the male as he has never been without her and was always by her side. Immediately his health declined and two days ago he was bloated, hanging out near the air stone "gasping," and would not move or eat. I could tell this may have been the end for him. I then made the decision to risk it all and out him back in the main tank so he could see the female again seeing she was not gone forever and would not die alone. The second she saw him she swam right up to him, flared her fins and stayed by him. He died the next day with her right there.
I understand the risk I made, potentially infecting the main tank again, but it was worth it as I view every fish as family and I take great responsibility for their lives since they will be spending every second with me. I want to make sure they are as happy as possible, even if they are just fish.
I believe the tank may be healthy as I do not see flashing anymore (Maybe the pleco is doing it I am not sure. He will once in a blue moon will back up, and "slide his belly over his flat stone he rests on under the driftwood, backs up and does it again. No outward signs of ich, or flukes though and is eating normally.) I think maybe my tank atmosphere is not right for German Blue Rams. I tried my hardest to make it so, but they only live 1-1.5 years max in my tank.
I will stop all medication of Metroplex on Friday as it will be a full month of medication. I already stopped Prazipro and feeding them Metroplex and Focus.
I just wanted to give you an update that I lost my male German Blue Ram yesterday. The pair seemed completely fine 8 days ago when I moved them into the quarantine tank and were fine with aquarium salt. When I started to add Cupramine a few days later I noticed the female was becoming stressed either from the Cupramine, or the male chasing her all over the 10 gallon tank as I think he was in the mood to mate with her again. Since she never had any symptoms of sickness I moved her back into the main tank and when I did that, I think that emotionally destroyed the male as he has never been without her and was always by her side. Immediately his health declined and two days ago he was bloated, hanging out near the air stone "gasping," and would not move or eat. I could tell this may have been the end for him. I then made the decision to risk it all and out him back in the main tank so he could see the female again seeing she was not gone forever and would not die alone. The second she saw him she swam right up to him, flared her fins and stayed by him. He died the next day with her right there.
I understand the risk I made, potentially infecting the main tank again, but it was worth it as I view every fish as family and I take great responsibility for their lives since they will be spending every second with me. I want to make sure they are as happy as possible, even if they are just fish.
I believe the tank may be healthy as I do not see flashing anymore (Maybe the pleco is doing it I am not sure. He will once in a blue moon will back up, and "slide his belly over his flat stone he rests on under the driftwood, backs up and does it again. No outward signs of ich, or flukes though and is eating normally.) I think maybe my tank atmosphere is not right for German Blue Rams. I tried my hardest to make it so, but they only live 1-1.5 years max in my tank.
I will stop all medication of Metroplex on Friday as it will be a full month of medication. I already stopped Prazipro and feeding them Metroplex and Focus.
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abw0004
Aquarium Advice FINatic
I apologize for the tardy response. When I was medicating, the temperature was between 84-86 degrees. A week ago I backed down to 82 and now it is at 80.
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