German blue ram sick-say what?!

[Tinafina]

60g
Ph7.6-8
Ammonia 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Nitrate 0ppm
Everything is in the clear minus the ph.

Have 3 fishes German blue ram, 2 dwarf rainbow's

In tank for months now, all of a sudden the strongest biggest dwarf male rainbow croaked. And I'm noticing the blue ram looking shy. Not as vibrant and eyes have red streaks. As well as his bottom fins are red now.

Anyone know what is going on? Shall I just give the tank a squirt of prime?

 

[Borderlesscott]

Nitrate level is a worry, shouldn't be 0. Shouldn't be a need to add Prime, but it wouldn't hurt - prime should only be used during water changes to denitrify or turn NH3 free ammonia to NH4+ in an emergency.
How long has the tank been running, what size of tank, temp, fully cycled etc? sounds like something is out of whack in there, possible ammonia or nitrite spike. At your pH level ammonia will be super toxic at any level, pH has an effect on ammonia - at lower pH levels ammonia converts to nearly harmless ammonium, the opposite is for higher.

 

[Tinafina]

Nitrate level is a worry, shouldn't be 0. Shouldn't be a need to add Prime, but it wouldn't hurt - prime should only be used during water changes to denitrify or turn NH3 free ammonia to NH4+ in an emergency.
How long has the tank been running, what size of tank, temp, fully cycled etc? sounds like something is out of whack in there, possible ammonia or nitrite spike. At your pH level ammonia will be super toxic at any level, pH has an effect on ammonia - at lower pH levels ammonia converts to nearly harmless ammonium, the opposite is for higher.

The tank has been running for a while now. My blue ram is looking like he is needing from his eyes and fins. What to do?!
With my prime kit, it says nitrite should be 0ppm to be safe. I want to save him.

 

[Tinafina]

Loss of color
And keep nibbling on the drift wood.

 

[ocminpin]

A ph of 7.6-8.0 is normal. I don't see a problem with that. How often do you do water changes and how much do you do at a time?

 

[Tinafina]

A ph of 7.6-8.0 is normal. I don't see a problem with that. How often do you do water changes and how much do you do at a time?

There was
No complications. UNTILL I left on vacation I needed to do a wc and my bf said one fish that died( strongest fish) then he did 4wc and. Now blue ram is sick. He added prime an also added aquarium salt not knowing any better.

 

[daveho]

how big arw the water changes besides that rams should only be in well establised aquariums and by those readings the tank is uncycled. the death was likly due to rams bein sensitive to amoni. no cycle so it spiked = dead fish then water changes so no amonia

 

[Tinafina]

ur not givin any infomation. how big is the tank and how big arw the water changes besides that rams should only be in well establised aquariums and by those readings the tank is uncycled. the death was likly due to rams bein sensitive to amoni. no cycle so it spiked = dead fish then water changes so no amonia

I don't know why u guys keep saying its not cycled. Tank has been cycled.
60g
Water changes were 10g then readded h20 then another 10g.
When I do my water check everything checks out.
If you Reread other posts it describes all my water parameters

 

[Tikitikin]

Um yeah tank is cyclic I agree but don't German blue rams like acidic pH? I'm not saying I'm 100% but I thought I heard that before because I have mine in 6.6-7.0 water and she is happy and healthy going on almost... 6 monthish maybe?

 

[HUKIT]

I don't know why u guys keep saying its not cycled.

Because unless your tank is heavily planted there should be detectable amounts of nitrate, what are you using for testing equipment strips or liquid?

 

[Tinafina]

Because unless your tank is heavily planted there should be detectable amounts of nitrate, what are you using for testing equipment strips or liquid?

API master kit.
Liquid.
What can I do?? For right now? He was doing fine for a while then all of a sudden I leave and come back to this. I have another fish tht still looks very healthy and energentic.

 

[HUKIT]

Honestly it sounds like you're doing everything right, I'd be doing daily water changes of 30-50%. I've given up on most rams personally do the weak stock being offered in last few years, what your experiencing is unfortunately not uncommon with that species.

 

[Tikitikin]

Oh I see... Must have missed read the levels yeah there should be something there at least with a liquid test from my exp but I have strips that read 0 as safe while my liquid test will say 10 on nitrate again that is my exp

 

[Tinafina]

I will see why happens in the next few days.
I have that black tahitian sand, does that ever go bad? I know that helps with the cycling.
And can u fish experts recommend me a good fish tank lighting brand for a planted tank.

 

[Tikitikin]

I would reccomend going to the planted section here. I only know about low light, hardy plants (most of my fish dig alot) but I would most likly check with the plant section. Best advice I can offer.

 

[Borderlesscott]

German Rams do better at a lower pH, but that's not what I'm getting at. Even a small amount of ammonia at a high pH is very toxic. I'm thinking your friend messed up the water change by either not putting Prime in or not getting the temprature right when adding it which shocked the fish. The Ram might pull through even though he looks stressed, hit and miss with those little guys.

 

[daveho]

honestly i have to stick to my guns and say the tank isnt cycled, i dont mean to come across as rude or anything but in my experiance its just not a good situation in that rams are known for being very picky they also have the reputation for dieing after a month and this is in ideal conditions in an uncycled tank which i can only assume this is as the results are the same as what u would expect from a tap.

 

[Tinafina]

So I been doing water changes daily, about 20% each day.. And I think he's pulling through. His tail is healing and he's swimming around now and his black stripes are coming back... Slowly.
I agree, maybe chlorine or temp went wrong somewhere.