My experience with German Blue Rams

[tottenham12712]

Hey all ive tried twice with GBRs with no success. Both times they arrive breathing extremely heavy and with very bright and swollen gills (im assuming gill flukes) and ended up passing away within 3 days. My tank water is perfect and very stable, Ammo: 0, Ni: 0 Na: 0, Ph:7.6, Temp: 79-80. Its a 30 gallon tank with a 8 gallon custom sump with an algae scrubber in it.

Basically Im just wondering if anyone has had any good experiences with GBRs. Im a little upset as these were supposed to be the center pieces of the tank and it just hasnt worked out for me.

Secondly would anyone have any suggestions for another nice colorful fish preferably a pair?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Jbrock]

Hey all ive tried twice with GBRs with no success. Both times they arrive breathing extremely heavy and with very bright and swollen gills (im assuming gill flukes) and ended up passing away within 3 days. My tank water is perfect and very stable, Ammo: 0, Ni: 0 Na: 0, Ph:7.6, Temp: 79-80. Its a 30 gallon tank with a 8 gallon custom sump with an algae scrubber in it.

Basically Im just wondering if anyone has had any good experiences with GBRs. Im a little upset as these were supposed to be the center pieces of the tank and it just hasnt worked out for me.

Secondly would anyone have any suggestions for another nice colorful fish preferably a pair?

Thanks in advance!

I'm interested myself in adding some rams as the center pieces of my 29 gal.

5 balloon red eye tetras
3 peppered corys
1 emerald Cory
1 guppy
1 bristlenose pleco

My LFS has blue rams, gold rams, some other kind of ram for $5 or $6 and electric blue rams selling for $23.99...whoaaa. And Petsmart is carrying blue rams on spec for $2.50 and Bolivian rams for $6. I think what Petsmart is calling blue rams is really German blue rams. I have to check the classification name next time I go.

Gold gouramis look badass too, I might end up getting a part of those instead... But I really like the rams.

 

[tottenham12712]

Bump for any input

 

[Borderlesscott]

Sounds like poor stock, change your supplier. Keep the lights out for the 1st day, seems to help them settle quicker
You said your nitrates where 0, is the tank cycled and stocked already?

 

[tottenham12712]

Sounds like poor stock, change your supplier. Keep the lights out for the 1st day, seems to help them settle quicker
You said your nitrates where 0, is the tank cycled and stocked already?

Thats what I figured :/ I got them from liveaquaria. I had the lights off for around 16-18 hours.

Yes my nitrates are 0, tank was fishless cycled about 6-8 months ago. The tank is fully stocked. I run an algae scrubber which is the reason for the low nitrates.

EDIT: Thanks for the response!

 

[Borderlesscott]

Only thing that sticks out is the stock or pH, not going to open a whole can of worms but some people keeping rams say 7.6 is okay and they do well, personally I'd try to drop it to 7 or lower. Try to find out what the pH of the supplier is, if its around the same as your tank then it's not it leaving the most obvious - poor stock and possible poor delivery and packing service.

 

[Fishy Smell]

Standard Rams are notoriously difficult to keep. They seem to hate changes in water chemistry, so are always likely to struggle when you first get the from the shop. Some stock will always be better than others of course though. I've owned 2 blue rams which both lasted no more than 2 weeks, 2 golden (one lasted about 6 weeks and the other about 5 months), and an electric blue which lasted about 5 months. I think in hindsight i may have been able to keep the ones which lasted 5 months for a lot longer because i think it was when i did a fairly large water change they both died.
I would say if you get some that make it past the first couple of months you may have a good chance, but you just need to do very small water changes weekly to have a chance of keeping them for the longer term, definately avoid anything over 10%.

Alternatively you could keep Bolivian, which are much easier, or Curviceps which are hardier also. Both are pretty colourful.

 

[Tetra1990]

Standard Rams are notoriously difficult to keep. They seem to hate changes in water chemistry, so are always likely to struggle when you first get the from the shop. Some stock will always be better than others of course though. I've owned 2 blue rams which both lasted no more than 2 weeks, 2 golden (one lasted about 6 weeks and the other about 5 months), and an electric blue which lasted about 5 months. I think in hindsight i may have been able to keep the ones which lasted 5 months for a lot longer because i think it was when i did a fairly large water change they both died.
I would say if you get some that make it past the first couple of months you may have a good chance, but you just need to do very small water changes weekly to have a chance of keeping them for the longer term, definately avoid anything over 10%.

Alternatively you could keep Bolivian, which are much easier, or Curviceps which are hardier also. Both are pretty colourful.

I can vouch for bolivians. I got my first 2 last year and one died about 1 month later. Although it was bullied. Finally found more rams and picked up a new ram. The original ram, I've had for almost a year and it's doing great!