Someone want to explain this?

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IHaveAquariums

IHaveAquariums

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Aug 2, 2017
Messages
328
Location
Ohio
I go to a Lfs less then a mile away from my house because they have decent fish and some seem to breed with pure luck there for example there were 2 firemouth Cichlids w a pleco in one of the for sale tanks and they somehow spawned and had a lot of fry. Anyways, I get a GBR, bring it home, acclimate and add to my 20g long. It's planted and parameters tested perfect. He got shimmy, he stayed in one place moving his fins really fast and his breathing was very labored, definitely sick. I let him be for an hour, still like it, wasn't just new tank shock or anything. moved him to another tank with a slightly lowered pH (I have water with a pH of about 8) Same thing. I take him back to the store where the employee was convinced I don't use water conditioner and was saying I was on well water because the water I brought him back in was tinted due to peat and driftwood. (They also try to talk down to me which gets quite frustrating because I can assure you I know more about fish than they do, it's just some random people hired) they let me return him and they added him back and he was immediately fine. No signs of anything. However, even being a mile away, we're on different water suppliers but they come from the same source and the water quality reports have near identical records. Any idea why the GBR acted this way? 0ppm ammonia/nitrite and 0ppm nitrate (I have plants and keep up on water changes) with pH around 8 and a temp of 82°
 
IHaveAquariums said:
I go to a Lfs less then a mile away from my house because they have decent fish and some seem to breed with pure luck there for example there were 2 firemouth Cichlids w a pleco in one of the for sale tanks and they somehow spawned and had a lot of fry. Anyways, I get a GBR, bring it home, acclimate and add to my 20g long. It's planted and parameters tested perfect. He got shimmy, he stayed in one place moving his fins really fast and his breathing was very labored, definitely sick. I let him be for an hour, still like it, wasn't just new tank shock or anything. moved him to another tank with a slightly lowered pH (I have water with a pH of about 8) Same thing. I take him back to the store where the employee was convinced I don't use water conditioner and was saying I was on well water because the water I brought him back in was tinted due to peat and driftwood. (They also try to talk down to me which gets quite frustrating because I can assure you I know more about fish than they do, it's just some random people hired) they let me return him and they added him back and he was immediately fine. No signs of anything. However, even being a mile away, we're on different water suppliers but they come from the same source and the water quality reports have near identical records. Any idea why the GBR acted this way? 0ppm ammonia/nitrite and 0ppm nitrate (I have plants and keep up on water changes) with pH around 8 and a temp of 82°
Click to expand...
Minimum Tank Size 30 gallons

Care Level Moderate

Temperament Peaceful

Water Conditions 72-79° F, KH 5-12, pH 5.0-7.0

Max. Size 2½"

Color Form Blue, Orange, Red, Yellow

Diet Omnivore

Compatibility View Chart

Origin Captive-Bred

Family Cichlidae

What I'm assuming is pH shock as they probably had a pH much much lower than you, gbr's can acclimate to what I've read a max pH of 7.1-7.2

Why do you have your tank so warm? Are you keeping fish that need 82° as you're asking for problems if you ever get a bacterial infection into the tank as it will spread more rapidly at 75° and up.
Not a big deal just curious why so warm most keep their community tanks around 74-78, unless of course you're keeping discus or other species that have to have really warm water.
 
A friend of mine and I talked about this a few years ago, She works at a pet store and doesn't claim to know much about the fish. But she did tell me they use RO water and they don't remineralize it. That might be your problem. Source might be the same but they may be using RO water.
 
Gbr is a little sensitive so I guess its a pH shock. They prefer warm water. Looks like you have everything fine except pH. If you can try to drip acclimate Gbr. More chances of thriving.

Also how many Gbr you bought? They don't like being alone. They need two or three minimum to feel good
 
I only got 1 because he was the only one who was in nice condition, the rest were a little torn up and were visibly stressed. My plan is to eventually have 3
 
Oh yeah I know he's the guru here with them, I was hoping since they aren't wild caught ones they would adjust to pH but I'm guessing the store does use RO and significantly lowers their pH.
 
I raise mine in 7.6 ph .
To me overall hardness is more important.
I usually go by TDS. My TDS is pretty high at 350 so I am not sure the rams would not do well in 8.0 ph ? It may not be as hard as my water even?
 
IHaveAquariums said:
Oh yeah I know he's the guru here with them, I was hoping since they aren't wild caught ones they would adjust to pH but I'm guessing the store does use RO and significantly lowers their pH.
Click to expand...
I just read the max pH is 7.5 but it's not recommended, is your tap water 8.0 if do have you tried cutting the tap with RO WATER? you said you have peat already what about drift wood? As those 3 things should lower the pH where it would be suitable to keep rams.
 
coralbandit said:
I raise mine in 7.6 ph .
To me overall hardness is more important.
I usually go by TDS. My TDS is pretty high at 350 so I am not sure the rams would not do well in 8.0 ph ? It may not be as hard as my water even?
Click to expand...
Well you're the guru I'm just googling my heart out over here lol, I read hardness is very important as well but I'll leave that to you cause these things I'm reading are way off where I know you know what you're talking about lol.
 
I've kept a lot of different fish at high pH. There's more to it as Bandit pointed out. I'm guessing if it was pH shock it would have pulled out of it if it didn't kill it. There's some debate on effectiveness of drip acclimation or just dropping the fish into a higher or lower pH and letting them adapt.
 
Well once you buy four five rams all together and put them in they ll settle down quick. That ram you bought was with other rams. His or her nature is to feel safe when others around (even though they are territorial but thats another topic) New home, pH shock and no expected tank mates for him. Next time please buy more rams and drip acclimate them. Drip acclimation is bad in case of fish you imported from like other country or when they traveled in bag for long because in that case as soon as you open bag you should add them quick. But in your case you can gladly drip acclimate them. Never buy one ram. Guaranteed it won't survive.

Even with too many they are hard to feed initially because it is finicky eater. Need to offer them something more tasty like blood worms to induce there appetite. Also they hide when newly introduced. So just buy three or four and see how it goes. Best idea is to check LFS pH.
 
kashif314 said:
Well once you buy four five rams all together and put them in they ll settle down quick. That ram you bought was with other rams. His or her nature is to feel safe when others around (even though they are territorial but thats another topic) New home, pH shock and no expected tank mates for him. Next time please buy more rams and drip acclimate them. Drip acclimation is bad in case of fish you imported from like other country or when they traveled in bag for long because in that case as soon as you open bag you should add them quick. But in your case you can gladly drip acclimate them. Never buy one ram. Guaranteed it won't survive.

Even with too many they are hard to feed initially because it is finicky eater. Need to offer them something more tasty like blood worms to induce there appetite. Also they hide when newly introduced. So just buy three or four and see how it goes. Best idea is to check LFS pH.
Click to expand...
Even numbers only, but I agree with the other parts
 
I don't have a test kit to measure TDS but I'll start looking around for one, and no I haven't tried cutting it with RO. I was hopeful the peat would lower it a bit so ive been running it and it doesn't seem to really lower it yet, Ill give it more time though. Think a 20 gallon long could support 4 rams and 3 peacock gudgeons? I already have the gudgeons and I'm running a fluval c2 as filtration. Thanks for all the help guys and sorry I haven't been responding, I only use the app and it's not working right for me right now
 
Plus one on the TDS meter.
That is the one I rely on.
4 rams in a 20 long might work might not.
If the fish followed rules then they would both be happy with half the tank .. They should each claim a corner and 1 square foot ?
Does this happen every time ??
 
In regards to him acting weird? No it's never happened before and I get fish from there all the time. And I don't think ill stock it with 4 rams, over crowded IMO, I'll probably do some smaller schooling ones
 
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