Bolivian Ram won't eat!

[bud29]

Today I received 2 Bolivian rams, along with some other fish. One ram has settled in pretty nicely, and has good coloration. At first he didn't eat but he just needed to be taught what food was. The other ram, however, has maintained a dark grey coloration, sits on the sand, and won't eat even if a flake lands on his head. How do I go about feeding this guy?

 

[jbree13]

How longs your tank been running? What are your water perimeters?

 

[bud29]

How longs your tank been running? What are your water perimeters?

Tank has been set up for about 12 weeks. My parameters are:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
NitrIte: 0 ppm
NitrAte: 40 ppm

I know my nitrates are high, my tap water has high nitrates....I got some plants to try to combat them, but I am not sure how many trates they will actually absorb...

 

[jbree13]

They are high, maybe get the chemical "prime" it helps alot! And in the future you could get an RO unit which could lower that! Just an idea!

Try and feed some different types of food! Like blood worms ect! My bolivian ram loves them! He goes nuts !

But the sign of one sitting on the ground and being black is a bad sign.. He is showing sign of high stress and or desiese!

 

[Borderlesscott]

If they have been just introduced to the tank I wouldn't worry to much about it, he is probably still adjusting to the tank. He might have been fed different food in the shop as well so he might take a while to come round to the new food, though I've found Bolivians will eat almost anything. I would maybe reduce your feeding it might help with the Nitrates, how often do you feed? I've never known Nitrates to be as high from the tap, but I'm from the UK so it might be different in the US.

 

[bud29]

I do use prime, and I will try blood worms. Maybe he will eat them. And, maybe he will recover; he may be still stressed from shipping. He was only in the mail 2 days, but that still might have stressed him out. I will also do water changes every day, to try to make the water even cleaner.....Even though nitrates in the tap are high, water changes will lower them some. Thanks for the help!

 

[bud29]

If they have been just introduced to the tank I wouldn't worry to much about it, he is probably still adjusting to the tank. He might have been fed different food in the shop as well so he might take a while to come round to the new food, though I've found Bolivians will eat almost anything. I would maybe reduce your feeding it might help with the Nitrates, how often do you feed? I've never known Nitrates to be as high from the tap, but I'm from the UK so it might be different in the US.

That's what I was thinking, but the other Bolivian would eat the flakes, so I don't know. My nitrAtes appear to be about 10-20 ppm from the tap, but the city report says there are only 5, and the state regulation is no more than 10.

 

[Borderlesscott]

Are you using the liquid test kit? if so bang the hell out of bottle 2. Water change daily, cut back on feeding, give the substrate a good clean. If you are definately getting those Nitrate levels I would send a sample to the water supplier, in the UK they must do something about legally. Bolivians are tough little guys, he might be okay - fish by mail is really stressful on them, good clean water and keep the lights off for maybe a day it will help settle him. Remember the fish has been sitting in dirty water for maybe a day or two so maybe slight ammonia issues effecting him.

10-20 Nitrates is okay, if you can get it that you should be fine.

 

[bud29]

Are you using the liquid test kit? if so bang the hell out of bottle 2. Water change daily, cut back on feeding, give the substrate a good clean. If you are definately getting those Nitrate levels I would send a sample to the water supplier, in the UK they must do something about legally. Bolivians are tough little guys, he might be okay - fish by mail is really stressful on them, good clean water and keep the lights off for maybe a day it will help settle him. Remember the fish has been sitting in dirty water for maybe a day or two so maybe slight ammonia issues effecting him.

10-20 Nitrates is okay, if you can get it that you should be fine.

OK thanks. I do try to really beat up the nitrate bottle, but apparently not enough. I wasn't going to feed tomorrow anyways, because the tetras got all the food intended for the stressed ram.

 

[Rivercats]

I had to ship all my rams in and this isn't too uncommon. I've had one go for about 4 days before it finally de-stressed and began to color back up and eat. Can you get hold of any floating plants like duckweed, small water lettuce or small water hyacinth, or my favorite frogbit. These guys will really work well for absorbing excess nutrients in the water. Duckweed works the best but is messy when you want to get it out (because it is so small). But many fish will actually eat it so sometimes its not an issue. In the 220g I actually add alittle every couple weeks in a feeding ring. I keep small water hyacinths in the tank all the time. They can really help when your having excess nutrient issues.

 

[bud29]

I had to ship all my rams in and this isn't too uncommon. I've had one go for about 4 days before it finally de-stressed and began to color back up and eat. Can you get hold of any floating plants like duckweed, small water lettuce or small water hyacinth, or my favorite frogbit. These guys will really work well for absorbing excess nutrients in the water. Duckweed works the best but is messy when you want to get it out (because it is so small). But many fish will actually eat it so sometimes its not an issue. In the 220g I actually add alittle every couple weeks in a feeding ring. I keep small water hyacinths in the tank all the time. They can really help when your having excess nutrient issues.

I have 2 Anarchis plants, (1 regular, 1 narrow-leaf) which I have heard are great at absorbing nutrients. I also have many Java Ferns and a large portion of Java Moss, but I know those aren't quite as great at eating nitrAtes.

I just did a 50% water change, and my ram seems to be a bit better. I haven't tried to feed him yet, but he is not sitting on the sand any more and his coloration is ever so slightly better. There is hope

 

[bud29]

Well, dang. The ram is back to sitting on the sand.

 

[creic38]

I would give him a couple of days. I was worried about putting a German Blue in my take, and he worked out great.......and, supposedly, GBR's are more sensitive. Try different foods anyway, just in case. Build the little guy a cave using a small plant pot.....that might help.