Ever hear of 'red zebra' angels?
Geez, I go away for 1 lousy day and I'm already 4 pages behind. You guys chat an awful lot.
Now, I'm not saying this is the case with these fish but I would be leery of a red version of an established line where the fish was not red from coloring foods. At the auction, I met a Discus/ Angel breeder, ( quite well known as well
) who was pushing a food( not from his company) there on the auction block, due to it's higher concentration of red producing ingredients. So, does this mean that all red fish are artificially colored? No, but it might be in this case.
Just tossing this out there.
As for the Ram death, it kinda goes with what I was saying. Breeding is very stressful on fish. From preparing to spawn to actually caring for the spawn. It just makes the fish weaker. The ammonia in the bag could have been produced just from them breathing, possibly hyperventilating due to the more strenuous condition of the pre spawn female. You also don't know if the male was releasing milt into the water which also could have had some effect. Yet another reason why not shipping a fish so close to spawn is not a good idea.
EDIT: Yet another reason why not shipping a fish so close to spawn is not a good idea, should have read "Yet another reason why NOT shipping a fish so close to spawn IS a good idea." ( I missed that double negative before. Sorry
)