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This is not really an 'illness' question, but an 'acting strange' question. My huge male breeder ram, who was previously very active, is hiding quite a bit lately. I can't see any thing wrong with him,no clamped fins, no bumps, lumps, marks, weirds spots or misplaced scales.

The tank, 55 gallon, is as it always has been: pH 7.2, 0 NH3, 0 NO2, NO3 at 5 ppm, temp. 80*F. All other inhabitants: angels, female breeder ram, rummy tetras, blue tetras, Von Rio tetras, Apisto cacatuoides & trifasciata, and Queen Arabesque pleco are perfect. Active healthy, swimming and eating. I think I've seen him eat since he started this, but I can't be sure because he is hiding. I performed a water change last night hoping that that would renew his spirit, but to no real avail. He's not breathing hard or gasping, just hiding in one spot, which is weird for him. He was a juvie with very little color yet when I bought him and 2 females back in July, so he's not very old. He and my female have had many sets of eggs which have produced some nice fry, so I hate to lose him at such a young age.

Anybody got any ideas? Stab in the dark?

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

Are the apistos breeding? If they are, they may be picking on him.

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I used to be Snow White, but I drifted.
~ Mae West

They don't seem to be, ATM, what's weird is, the Apistos, angels, and rams have all had eggs almost simultaneously, and no one ever bothered anyone else.

In fact, the apistos and rams have had eggs at the same time, just in different spots with no aggression. There are tons of places for everyone to set up shop in there. The Apistos use holes in the DW, the angels use the high, vertical part of an Amazon sword leaf, and the rams usually use the CO2 diffuser (flat top). Well, that's where he is, hovering over the flat top of that CO2 diffuser, but there are no eggs. Could he be waiting on her to show up and lay them?

Usually, when he wants her to lay eggs, he chases her around.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."

How many rams do you have?

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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

In this 55, I just have the male/female breeding pair. There was another female, but once these two paired up, they were torturing her, so I moved her to my 29 and I have put one of the male offspring of these two in with her in hopes of getting another pair.

In the meantime, the male ram, on further inspection, has a little read spot on his lip like maybe he was lip locking with one of my other fish. I think he's going to be okay, he just seems a little scared.

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~~Melissa~~
"Beauty is in the eye of the beer holder."