Weak rams !!!

[SAFFABOY]

Is it just me who is struggling to keep these bl@#dy asian blue rams alive?

I had two breeding females die of dropsy then a male of hole in the head.

Before that i had another 3 females also die of hole in the head or dropsy.

This is all in a matter of 1 year.

My discus are perfectly healthy and growing at a stupid rate.They were in the same tank as the rams.Anyone have any german rams for sale,or even locally bred rams.

While i'm having a rant....whats with these retarded ,deformed balloon things we getting?

I actually saw some blue balloon rams sold as just regular "blue rams".

Why are people buying these deformed fish.if it isnt bad enough that we have weak regular blues coming in...now they bring in deformed ,weak asian fish!

PS:anyone seen any regular golden rams lately?

Let us know what you think.

[antwan]

hey, i also think that the balloon rams are stupid and ugly, just onselling weak fish is not a good ideea at all. How often were you doing water changes on you tanks with the rams in them? i think dropsy and HITH are both caused by poor water quality (please correct me if im wrong someone). The only gold rams i have seen around are the gold balloon ones unfortunately. In a couple of months i may be able to help you out with some little blue rams.

[sharn]

its because we get sent the mass produced ones from asia that are all inbred, it weakens the genes and when people breed these theyre just letting more weak fish out into the hobby. blues are ALOT more hardy than golds, if your having problems with blues i wouldnt suggest trying golds, the only ones i saw (i purchased some to have all 4 die of unknown causes in 2-3 months when the blues charged on) are in HFF in auckland. keeping blue rams is just like keeping other fish to me luckily, i havent had any problems with my blues, of course they are in a discus tank so have clean water so i cant really comment on their difficulty of keeping in other tanks.

we dont get german ones here as far as i know as i wanted some, no one imports them.

the only reason so many balloons are around is because people buy them, if noone bought them wed have none in the market, theyre selectively bred for this stupid look, its the same with flowerhorn (dont get me started on these) and parrots, once you bring in new fish people go nuts over them and it damages the beginning fishs' stocks (see trimac industry in US now from FH). its the way the world works sadly, the only thing we can do is let others know about these fish in the hopes it will be one less person buying them.

if you want to breed rams and get better stock out to the country find someone that can import germans, ive been told theyre real tough compared to most, im sure we have a few good ones around but the parents probably wouldnt be for sale.

and like ant said- how often were you doing water changes? rams are more sensitive that discus IMO and wont be too happy on once a week water changes.

[Shelley]

Hi Saffaboy. Where did you get your rams from? I bought some from Redwood Aquatics some time back....and bought a couple more from animates.....they are one of the most beautiful fish I have ever seen....but what do you look for in a healthy fish? I chose my first lot by colour....but then read that they are that colour by pure chemical....second lot weren't as bright...in fact quite a dull grey....but the colour came out in them when they went into my tank. Of 5 rams I only have 2 left....both boys I think. (Have had them about 6 months) I would love to have a go at breeding rams but don't know enough about them...and don't want to be party to breeding half bred weak pathetic creatures.

[sharn]

ive got a 1.5cm girl with a 2.5cm male (realy bubbas) and i can already tell the sex (well im hoping that her red tummy means shes definatly a girl) so if yours have red tums its quite likely theyll be females. theres also something about the colours around their dots on their sides or something like that.

i try to get the most colourful and happy looking fish in the tank if i get them from LFS, often they arent colouring up to their potential anyway cause theyre stressed. im not sure about the chemicals (do ya mean hormones) to colour, we dont have dying in the country that i know of and i dont think we have too much hormone feeding etc going on?

rams are pretty easy to get breeding but its apparently looking after the fry thats the hard part, ants just bred some and his babies are going strong. my pair are looking like they want to make babies with the male picking out two spots and hanging around them basically 24/7 and theyve both gone real colourful. if your fish are nice looking and healthy dont stress if you breed them, as long as theyre not deformed etc. you want to try get the nicest fish you can to breed so you let out other nice fish

[Shelley]

bugger! I have to admit that quality care of our main tank hasn't been as good as it could have been in recent times as we now have our daughter's boyfriend boarding with us in our lounge.....so with it being his bedroom we don't get to see our main tank as much as we would have otherwise. Anyway....got home from fishie shopping and was removing a gourami from a newly cycled tank for our quarantine tank.....put the gourami in the main tank and did a water change...it was only then I noticed the state of our beautiful blue rams.....yuk...I suspect one has hole in the head...or maybe it is just a fungus (???) the other looks slightly mildewy...they have been removed and put in our hospital tank which we are treating with melafix. Can't believe 2 of our fishies got to that state without me realising

[SAFFABOY]

shelley..good luck with your fish.I didnt have any luck with my rams that had hole in the head.

Water quality isn't the only issue.With hole in the head it is apparently due to a lack of calcium,phosphorous and vitamin d.

Remember old food ie .opened cans of food that are older than two months are useless.Atmospheric humidity decomposses vitamins

Well that is according to HANDBOOK OF FISH DISEASES.

Of coarse i only found this out after buying the book.

[SAFFABOY]

I also think doing water changes is key to good fish health.I must admit i'm a once a week water changer.

However the rams were laying constantly.i even got 9 fry to about 10 millimeters.Went on holiday to oz...father in law managed to over feed them.Polluted their tank.

So i didnt ever think that the water could have been that bad.As well as the fact that my discus were doing brilliantly.

I looked high and low on the net for causes of dropsy.NO one can pin point a reason for dropsy.I just wanted to beat my head against a wall with the ram deaths.

I'm off rams for now.well asian ones at least.Those local ones sound good.Anyone coming to chch soon,that can bring some down for me?

[SAFFABOY]

shelley... the hole in the head case you think you have.Has the fish turned quite dark in colour.Is his lateral line also quite dark.If so probably hole in the head.

If he has a fungus you need to add methylene blue to the hospital tank.

[sharn]

be careful with dosing them shelly, theyre pretty sensitive (i learnt that the hard way on golds), i knew theyre were sensitive ( but not THAT sensitive keep in mind blues are hardier though, havent had to medicate blues so cant say how sensitive they are) :-? id do a half dose and see if things improve, if they still seem to be handling it you can try a full dose but watch em for a while (i admit to sitting and watching my sick golds for about 3 hours to see if they reacted :oops: ) and if they get funny do a water change.

read up on the net bout HITH, theres lot of info around and theres meds for it, i think they use metro for it which also used for hex. i assume its the same for all fish as to why they get it and how you treat it. can you see actuall pitting in their heads, like somethings eaten away at it or its been gouged out?

also depends what 'mildewy' looks like, id imagine it would be fluffy? which would be fungus. didnt manage to treat the golds for fungus cause they died of something else sooner but furan 2 might help?

giving the tanks lots of water changes and giving lots of variety for foods will help them recover from HITH if they have it, oscars are prone to it and theres the 'beefheart' recipe which is real good at combating it as it has a wide range of stuff in it, pretty messy to make even for a large fish but blending beefheart into ram size bits would pollute the tank big time :-? if you read up and think it might be worth a shot theres lots of recipes around, some people use special vitamin powders and all sorts and its a good way to get meds into them which need to be fed and cant be soaked into food.

i hope things work out and dont stress too much, ill bet your a top fish keeper and will do everything you can to try get em back on track, good luck and i have my fingers crossed for you

[Shelley]

Well the larger ram died....the smaller one with the hole in the head is still with us. A sick sword also has died and I am unsure if it because he was sick or if it was because the hospital tank made him sicker...I was careful not to overdose the tank with melafix. Bugger...I hate it when fishies die