Hi all,
New problem....
Two weeks ago, I added four German Blue Rams to my 30 gallon tank. I've never had so many in my tank before- but I really would like to have a male/female pair and I wasn't able to sex them in the store (I saw no pink bellies, but a couple had very distinct blue in their black dots, and finnage was also questionable). Anyway, the man in the store swore up and down that they'd be fine together....even if they turned out to all be male.....I decided to try it, watch them carefully, and if two paired up, I'd know I had a match. I also set up a 5 gallon hospital tank to use "just in case."
Most of the time, they hide at the bottom of the tank. I've got lots of little caves and plants, so they all have a place to go. They hardly ever stray into open water and always hide as soon as they spot me.
I've never had this before- in the past, my rams have always been brazen and friendly- coming right over to me and following me around the tank. I had chalked this up to them all being male and not wanting to leave their "territories," for fear of being usurped. I'm currently planning out a new 200 gallon tank, so I was going to let it be for a month or so, and move a some of them into the new tank when it was ready.
But today, I noticed that a couple of them have begun to show slight fraying on their fins. It also looks like there are white spots on their dorsal fins and tails.
Today, I saw one quickly rub against the rocks and tick a few times. I've also noticed that he has a couple of very small indentations in his forhead. He also showed some redness at the base of one of his side fins.
I would have liked to take a picture to show you, but they wont stay still in the open long enough for me to get a photo.
I'm afraid it may be ich or hole-in-the-head- but I don't want to unnecessarily stress my fish out and medicate them if it's not.
I had a goldfish tank that became ich infected when I was in college- the white spots those fish had looked somewhat different than these- they were smaller- more distinctly raised and round- and more numerous.
I checked my water conditions with my API kit this morning....Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10.
I have the temp set at 80 (this is really one of the only things that has changed recently- I had a single heater in there, but for some reason, it wasn't heating the whole tank, and the temperature around the heater was 80 and on the other end of the tank it was 77...all the fish were crowding around that end of the tank like it was a space heater......so I added a new marineland stealth heater this week to the other side of the tank. The temp the temp on the newly heated side went up three degrees, thus matching the warmer end of the tank.
My tank is planted with amazon swords and I feed them all a well rounded diet.
What should I do? I've got the hospital tank running in case I need to quarantine.
New problem....
Two weeks ago, I added four German Blue Rams to my 30 gallon tank. I've never had so many in my tank before- but I really would like to have a male/female pair and I wasn't able to sex them in the store (I saw no pink bellies, but a couple had very distinct blue in their black dots, and finnage was also questionable). Anyway, the man in the store swore up and down that they'd be fine together....even if they turned out to all be male.....I decided to try it, watch them carefully, and if two paired up, I'd know I had a match. I also set up a 5 gallon hospital tank to use "just in case."
Most of the time, they hide at the bottom of the tank. I've got lots of little caves and plants, so they all have a place to go. They hardly ever stray into open water and always hide as soon as they spot me.
I've never had this before- in the past, my rams have always been brazen and friendly- coming right over to me and following me around the tank. I had chalked this up to them all being male and not wanting to leave their "territories," for fear of being usurped. I'm currently planning out a new 200 gallon tank, so I was going to let it be for a month or so, and move a some of them into the new tank when it was ready.
But today, I noticed that a couple of them have begun to show slight fraying on their fins. It also looks like there are white spots on their dorsal fins and tails.
Today, I saw one quickly rub against the rocks and tick a few times. I've also noticed that he has a couple of very small indentations in his forhead. He also showed some redness at the base of one of his side fins.
I would have liked to take a picture to show you, but they wont stay still in the open long enough for me to get a photo.
I'm afraid it may be ich or hole-in-the-head- but I don't want to unnecessarily stress my fish out and medicate them if it's not.
I had a goldfish tank that became ich infected when I was in college- the white spots those fish had looked somewhat different than these- they were smaller- more distinctly raised and round- and more numerous.
I checked my water conditions with my API kit this morning....Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10.
I have the temp set at 80 (this is really one of the only things that has changed recently- I had a single heater in there, but for some reason, it wasn't heating the whole tank, and the temperature around the heater was 80 and on the other end of the tank it was 77...all the fish were crowding around that end of the tank like it was a space heater......so I added a new marineland stealth heater this week to the other side of the tank. The temp the temp on the newly heated side went up three degrees, thus matching the warmer end of the tank.
My tank is planted with amazon swords and I feed them all a well rounded diet.
What should I do? I've got the hospital tank running in case I need to quarantine.