# German Blue Ram stressed out?



## hvuong (Nov 16, 2007)

I had 4 GBR's, two males and two females, one of them died about 2 or 3 weeks back. How the first died was i found him hiding behind the filter inlet and his head was black so i assumed he was stressed and probably because the other male claimed dominance so i removed him to a hospital tank but he died 3 days later after not changing back to his normal color, not eating, and swimming erratically. So about 3 days ago i saw my last remaining male on the bottom of my tank and also with the black head. I dont see any reasons why he would do this. He's now in a hospital tank with a drift wood and java moss to cover him and make him feel safe.

Stock in my 30 gallon.
7 cardinal tetras
3 siamese algae eaters
5 botia sidthimunki (dwarf loach)
5 otociclus
and the 3 rams

all the other fishes are fine and none harassed the male.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

What are the temp and water parameters on your tank? How often and what percentage of water do you change?


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## hvuong (Nov 16, 2007)

the temperature has been varying a lot lately cause of the weather here in northern cali. Currently its at 84. It's usually around 80. I need to check water parameters so im not sure.


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## hvuong (Nov 16, 2007)

checked my parameters and the water has become very bad. going to fix the problem, thanks


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## hvuong (Nov 16, 2007)

actually im not sure if my water paramters are right. Ive lowered the temperature down to 82 and just placed a bag of ice and water in there.

ph 7.6
nitrate is around 40+
nitrite 0
ammonia 0.25
and this is after a 50% water change

Any suggestions on what i should do at this point?


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Do another water change, and make sure you vacuum your substrate really well. If you have any carbon, add some to your filter. If you have some aquarium salt, also add a few teaspoons to the tank- your fish may have nitrate poisoning and salt helps.

You need to get that nitrAte down as low as possible for now- lower than 20ppm for sure. 40ppm + is toxic.

Make sure the new water you're adding is at the same temperature as the old. Quick changes in temp by themselves can kill fish or weaken them to the point they fall to disease or parasites.

You'll probably need to do another PWC first thing tomorrow morning, and keep an eye on the parameters throughout the day. 0.25ppm ammonia is the highest you want that level, and I'd shoot for 10ppm nitrAtes.

GL and keep us posted!


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## Bugman (Jan 7, 2008)

Good advice from Laura, I would be more concerned with the flucuation in temp than the high of 84. Rams can eaisly live with a temp of 84, but as Laura stated, sudden changes in temp can surely kill any fish.


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## @[email protected] (Oct 24, 2007)

hvuong said:


> the temperature has been varying a lot lately cause of the weather here in northern cali. Currently its at 84. It's usually around 80. I need to check water parameters so im not sure.


rams like high temp, but variations are the worst possible thing for fish. stabilize it. crank the heater up to 2 degrees below the hottest temp if you have to. but the best thing is to lower the room temp to 85 or so and keep it there.



hvuong said:


> actually im not sure if my water paramters are right. Ive lowered the temperature down to 82 and just placed a bag of ice and water in there.
> 
> ph 7.6
> nitrate is around 40+
> ...


lots and lots and lots and lots of water changes regularly. ammonia is bad, that much nitrate is actually worse. the ph could be better, but its not improtant, the fish adjust to ph and gh easy, its the flux that is damaging so dont change it.


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## plakat (Mar 2, 2008)

The Ph could be better and the temp swings are then best but rams are very sensitive to how clean you keep your water. I would think that's what cause them to die more than anything else.


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## hvuong (Nov 16, 2007)

I did another water change today and added amquel. the nitrate is down to 10 now and my ammonia to 0. thanks for the help, ill keep you up to date with the male ram tomorrow to see if he recovers


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Sounds like you're doing all you can do ATM- good luck!


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