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Hi,

About 3 days ago I noticed that my lone Blue Ram is swimming with its mouth open (sort of like gasping). Besides this symptom, he was acting and eating normally so I didn't do anything. I did my regular weekly water change yesterday and this morning I noticed that he's hiding in the back underneath plants, mouth still gasping, and his colours faded. Worse, he didn't even come out to eat when I put food in (usually he's the first to dash at sign of food). I'm thinking it could be internal bacteria. I lost a sparkling gourami in the same tank last week without any symptom. I know gouramis are e to internal bacteria infection, but could it infect other fish as well?

A few months ago I had a Bolivian Ram (in another tank) who one day lost colour and didn't eat, but she didn't show any gasping symptom. She died within a day.

BTW, here are the tank details: well-planted 15g, 25-28C (sometimes more due to the current heat), zero ammonia & nitrite, 5-10ppm nitrate. 50% water change every 1-2 weeks. Tank has been running for about 8 months.

Thanks for any advice!

-P

Just an update: the Blue Ram is still alive today, eating a little bit, and no longer hiding. But he's still gasping and in general not acting as chirpy as before (also not as colorful). I'm thinking of dosing metronidazole to the tank. Any thoughts?

Oh, and I also found a dead cory hastatus in the tank this morning. This fish always boggles me because I never see any external symptoms before they die.

-P

Look closely at the gills and see if they are holing them further out from their head than usual.

I'm thinking gill parasites, so metro would be a fine choice, but it will likely stuff up your biofilter, so think about doing a DIY medicated food.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Another choice may be deteriorated water quality due to the dead cory. Was the cat bloated and fungused, meaning that it had been dead for a while?

Do some water tests on ammonia, nitrates and nitrites to see if you have any spiking. I would do another water change and observe the impact on your ram. If his breathing is eased, it may have been because your parameters were off and rams are funny about that.

If you decided to therapeutically treat the ram then treat him in a small hospital tank with metro for three or four hours at half strength then return him to your tank.



__________
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Thanks, Callatya & Bob.

I will take a closer look at the gills when I get home tonight, but now that you mentioned it, I have a feeling his gills were slightly outwards, if that makes any sense. How do you make a medicated food, btw? He's not really eating at the moment, so it might be tough to get him to eat the medicated food.

The cory was fine up until last night (I did a count of them before I went to bed) so it only died during the night. I did check nitrate and ammonia this morning after I removed the cory, and both were still 0ppm (i.e. no spiking). I might do another water change tonight just in case. Unfortunately I don't have another spare tank to quarantine the Ram as my only hospital tank is being used to treat a rainbowfish from another tank (dropsy).

-P

Grab a large tupperware container or one of those 5L spring water jerrycans from woolies if you feel you need to quarantine him float it in the other tank

IMO its probably not worth quarantining him as other fish have died recently, which would point to you having something that has infected the entire tank.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

It might help to oxygenate the tank heavily until you get a definitive diagnosis, if the fish are all suffering from gill damage they will need all the oxygen you can give them, and may need help with respiration until after the damage has healed. On the offchance of it being a chemical issue rather than a bacterial one (ie something that wont show on a test kit) id probably start a fairly heavy regimen of water changes too.

Look for symptoms of gill flukes and possible crustacean parasites too.

Unfortunately he did not show any improvement after Metro treatment and passed this morning.

Do you think I should strip the entire tank to minimize the chance of any parasite infecting other fish in the future? The few fish that are left in the tank (2 botia sidthimunki, 3 corydoras habrosus, 2 dwarf pencilfish, 1 oto) seem ok, but I'm afraid of adding new fish to the tank now. I will do a large water change today (the metro stained the water), but I'm not sure if that's going to be enough.

Thanks for everyone's help!

-P

I have a feeling in my gut that gill flukes might be the problem, but you can run some carbon if worried about a chemical problem.

Be on a look out for parasites because blue rams are extremely e to them.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons