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Hey everyone,

My fiance's pair of blue rams have been fighting. They are male and female (99% sure, I've kept rams enough), and we bought them about a week ago. They haven't quite paired off as planned, and instead have taken up territorial disputes. Today we've noticed the sides look heavily nipped all of a sudden, with a large red spot on each of them where the nipping seems to have occurred.

These injuries are coming as a bit of a surprise, given that conflicts have been de-escalating. Outside of a small nip out of the pectoral fin of the female, and a lost scale early on, there have been no issues.

My questions are as follows. Is the red spot on each one the result of a secondary bacterial infection within one days time? Is it possible that the redness is associated with nipping before infection occurs? Also, which commonly available antibiotic works the best? And, finally, am I wrong about all of this, and is there another answer entirely?

Hi there,

When I had 3 rams (1 male 2 f/m) in a 40g planted with lots of territory and a choice of caves they still managed to get into some pretty big scraps with each other. Par course for cichlids territory wise and also if a potential mate gets rejected, even mates will scrap it out.

3 things may reduce territory issues. 1. More territory, 2. More structures to reduce line of sight. 3. smaller fish to distract them (dithers)

It sounds like wounds from fighting and yes it's very easy for a wounded area to get infected. Diligent attention to water cleanliness will help, as well as Melafix which is a natural antiseptic. Feed a good variety of healthy foods.

You may want to separate them until they heal if possible then pull the first fish, change the layout of the tank, then try introducing them again.

Good luck

What size tank is this and is there anything else in there ?



The Amazon Nut...

The tank is a 20g with a few male guppies we introduced from a 10g as dithers once we figured out the rams weren't getting along. So far that's helping a little; I never knew guppies had the guts to nip a ram's tail until now. Aside from that there's a 4 year old black skirt tetra that's hung on as a survivor of past disease, and 4 little otocinclus.

The male and female were introduced one day appart, the tank is planted to about a medium density with 3 decent sized peices of mopani and various territories set up to block line of site. We re-scaped the tank some before this and it did calm things down some.

As it stands, the 10g is going to be cleared of guppies which will find a new home. The black skirt will then be moved over to that tank, as well as one of the rams. I'll talk it over with my fiance, but odds are it will be the male given his aggression and how typical breeding patterns go should they mate.

As for right now, the female seems to have shaken the infection and looks good. The male, on the other hand, is developing what looks like a fungal infection as well, so we'll be treating him fairly soon. Might just transfer the male to the 10g after cleaning/clearing it for now and treat him alone.

Guppies can be nippy boogers at times lol.

Otocinclus are awesome fish, here's my fave,
the tiger oto http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=353

The tank setup sounds good but yes in a tank that size definately they'll fight unless a breeding pair. Whether or not any 2 cichlids will get along always seems to be a crap shoot lol.

Glad to hear the female has improved & good luck on the male. Sounds like you're on the right track !

Which reminds me I should probably be catching up on my severe procrastination this week. Well, in another minute or so lol.








The Amazon Nut...

Ya, the tiger otto's are neat- seen them around my home town on occasion, and more commonly on the coast.

On a separate note, the male ram bit the dust. In a day or two it exploded with bloat, caught a mild case of ich, and while the fungus receded, more little red spots appeared; 2 or 3, while the previous one disappeared. The spots look like they were made by anchor worms or something (2mm diameter) but no worms were in sight. Naturally we treated for ehm... everything. but I have the feeling we were sold a, 'lemon' so to speak. Meanwhile the rest of the tank is just fine. Think it would be worth dosing the tank at half strength or something for a couple days, with regular water changes?

Sorry to hear of the loss of your male ram

It sounds like a few things going on there, with a couple of them being secondary ailments.

I'd continue to treat the female based on her symptoms. Since worms were suspect in the male, good time to clean the glass, decor and shallow vac all the gravel. Observe the female closely.

The Amazon Nut...