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Hi all. (please read all, its really not that long) I have a 36 gallon planted tank with the following parameters. PH between 6.3 and 6.8, KH low, GH between soft and hard (hard to tell color on test strip). Temperature 80F. Tank mates: Two SAE's, 5 green corys, 4 otocinclus, 1 agasizzi, and one lonely male ram. The female ram in question began showing symptoms of rapid breathing, loss of color, reclusiveness, refusal to eat, and a barely discernable grey discoloration above the right gill. (this was confirmed by looking at the body up close).
I use a Filstar canister filter with fluval peat granules to control water, I changed half the peat about 10 days before the ram got sick. Also, I have been experimenting with treating new water for water changes with peat moss. the kind I used was Scott's 100% spahgnum peat moss. This definitely worked when I put a bag of it in a bucket with a water pump for a couple days. I changed about 7 gallons a few days before the fish got sick. I should mention that the male ram, as well as the rest of the fish, are in perfect health still, so whatever it was was not contagious. I mentioned that the female ram was sick for about 3 days before it died, and 1 day before it died, I put in a Nitra-Sorb pillow to eliminate the 30 ppm of nitrate. Ammonia and nitrite were at 0. For about a month, I have also been adding 5 mL of Instant Amazon and 5mL of Blackwater extract to soften the new water before I figured the peat out. Anyways, this is as much information that I can think of to provide on the mystery death, and I am really bummed about it and I wanna add tetras and get a new girl ram, but not until I satisfy my self that it was beyond my control. Any theories y'all can provide are greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
David from Birmingham

This reply might not be of much help, but I can say that I recently too lost a female Ram, with seemingly few symptoms, and with other tank members still looking and acting 100%.

Sometimes tropicals just die.. a bit of a non-specific answer, personally I think some of it has to do with inbreeding/stock quality. Rams in particular have a short lifespan anyway, and are easily susceptible to illnesses or diseases as I am sure you know..

The Ram which died developed a mystery small eroded patch at the base of her tail, and was eating and acting as normal up until her demise - although looking at the Ram who is still in the tank compared to the one who died, its colours are spectacular - like a little jewel - and I suspect it possibly could also be a female. So if they were both female, the dead one's colour were always poor to begin with, maybe indicative of illness.

If you're looking for an answer to why your fish are sick or dying then look no further...

Stop dosing all products that soften water, leave the peat in the store along with all the blackwater extract.

Your trops do not require the pH maneuvering and will react unfavorably to the changes, as you're experiencing now.

--garyroland.

Uh oh. Here it comes:

I disagree with gary.

Ok now that I've said it, let me explain.

Although it is likely that your fiddling with the water caused some stress on the ram, I don't think it caused the death in and of itself. I use peat and have used water softeners in the past with my rams and have never run into any difficulty. Looking at your post, I don't think the changes you were making would be drastic enough to actually kill your fish. If it was, the male would also be showing signs of distress.

I have to agree with Malaikah. Rams tend to be quite sensitive, I have noticed a rapid decline in the quality of specimens available lately and from what I have heard this decline seems to be pretty much universal. Pale colour in rams is a definite sign of weakness or general ill health IMO, but only if it lasts more than a day or so. Their colours are always changing a bit, that's natural for them.

On the other hand, your nitrates were quite a bit higher than I would suggest for keeping rams. I usually keep mine below 10-15 ppm, any more than that and I have seen them become distressed. I can't stress enough how sensitive they are to nitrate. IMO rams are almost as good as a test kit for determining how high nitrate is in the tank, you can usually tell that it's getting high just from changes in their behaviour and colour if you watch them closely enough.

You said that your nitrate reading was 30 ppm, and looking at your post, that was 2 days after a ~20% water change when you added the nitra-zorb (correct me if I'm wrong). IMO your nitrates before the water change must have been WAY too high for those rams. Like I said above, I have seen my rams show signs of distress in nitrate > 15 ppm with that being the only thing that could be causing it. After a water change to get it back down, they always brighten up.

The thing with nitrate is that it's a slow, drawn out killer, which leads many aquarists to believe that it's not something to really be worried about. This is completely false. Nitrate won't kill your fish instantly but it will greatly reduce lifespan and make them more e to disease. In fish like rams, which only live for a few years anyway and are VERY sensitive to water conditions, 30 ppm or more could easily cause eventual death.

Whether you use blackwater extract or peat or not, the most important thing to do is keep the water stable. Throw out that Nitra-zorb, you should be able to maintain nitrate below 15 ppm without it. I do it with water changes in an overstocked tank. Keep the pH and hardness stable. Decide where you want it and what you need to do to keep it there BEFORE you make changes to the tank.

I don't outright disaggree with water conditioners, I use them from time to time but you can't be haphazardly tossing stuff into the tank. BUT it takes a good deal of knowledge about chemistry and even more experience to be able to use additives to alter your water safely. You can't toss anything into the tank without a lot of serious thought, often it's just better to leave well enough alone.

Anyway, enough ranting out of me. I think you probably had a weak ram. High nitrate could have lent something to its death, and combined with your fiddling it probably just couldn't take the stress. If you had been lax on tank maintenance, the water change that you did could have just been the straw that broke the camel's back, killing an already stressed, weak ram.

To begin with, I agree with the above post. It's better for your fish to adapt once and for all for the water conditions in your area, rather than continuously trying to adapt to small changes. For instance, pH swings between 6.3 and 6.8 can be very stressful for the fish if they happen frequently. If you don't plan on breeding your fish, you need not make all those changes. Some people would argue that they'll be able to breed anyway, but I can't vouch for that.

Well, to your question. The grey discolouration above the gills could be slime disease or fungal infection. Fungal infection is usually associated with fluffiness, but it doesn't necessarily be so. It's a little hard to know exactly what it is even if you see it yourself. As the patch was just above the gill, it is likely that it has infected the gill, which would lead to rapid breathing. Both can be infectious, but it could be that this particular fish was weak and others are strogner and will not be infected.

If I were you, I would keep an eye on the other fish to see if any of them develope this discolouration, but I wouldn't treat them with anything. If one of the other fish develop the symptoms, you can treat them with medications, but as it's a little bit hard to tell what exactly is the cause, it is not a good idea to treat them for both. We wouldn't load ourselves with different medications every week, so we shouldn't do that to our fish. If one of the fish does develop the symptoms, give the individual fish a salt dip treatment and monitor its condition. You should notice an improvement instantly -- the grey discolouration will become white as if it was bleached. Then, over time, the fish will regain its colours. You can give it a second treatment a week later if the improvement stops or regresses.

On top of that, try to keep your water parameters stable to strengthen your fish. If you feel that you need to soften your water, perhaps you should experiment on an empty tank or a bucket of water until you reach stable results and only then slowly introduce your new method to the tank, once and for all.

Hope it helps.

I completely agree with the last posts, in resume there is 3 basic points to watch:
1.- Rams need good water quality, they are very sensitive.
2.- Stop the PH fluctuations, if your PH is around 7 they will be fine, is easier to adapt your fishes to the water than viceversa, PH changes leads to Stress.
3.- Water changes, Water changes, Water Changes are best way to get rid of Nitrates