PLEASE HELP! Gold Ram, extremely fast breathing.

[dan11]

Hi Everyone. I have a quick question. I have one gold ram and two german blues. I used to have 3 german blues and 2 golds. Unfortuneatly, both my german blue male, and my gold male started breathing very quickly. Then, they began either sitting on the bottom, on the gravel, or sitting up at top of the water with their snouts exposed. They both died about a day later. I then decided to do a large 75% water change. Everyone looked good, but then today, my gold female began to show the same symptons that the others showed right before they died. Everyone else seems healthy. All my angelfish are fighting, and spawning, showing no traces of illness. It also looks as if my 2 german blues have paired and they are probably spawning as I type this. What is wrong? I hope this made sense.Anyway I could treat this? Thanks in Advance!!!


Dan

 

[slimbolen99]

Couple of things to check are the pH and to ensure that the dechlorinator you are using is not expired, or that you've put in dechlorinator!

 

[Joe Gatchell]

Have you tested your water lately? Maybe an ammonia spike? Your rams would be more sensitive to that than your angels.

 

[Mike Wise]

What temperature is the water in the tank? When Rams are kept too cool, they are susceptible to diseases and parasites.

 

[dan11]

Thanks for the responses. Unfortuneatly the gold ram died. I am left with my breeding pair of german blue rams. They laid eggs yesterday in the smae tank. The temp. is at 78 - 80 F. Wouldn't my discus be more sensitive to the water than the rams? My discus looks fine though..

 

[Mike Wise]

Well, discus are larger fish and can handle heavier infestations of parasites. It's a fair possibility that the heavy breathing is either caused by gill erosion caused by pollutants or gill parasites like epistylus. It either is the cause, it is easy to fix. Frequent water changes for pollutants (and pray that the gill are not so damaged that the filaments don't grow back) and any of several medications for external parasites. Still, your discus and rams would prefer to live in the temperature zone that they evolved to live in. These are fish whose metabolism is designed to be most efficient in higher than normal aquarium temperatures.

 

[gerald]

Rams, fast breathing

Could be gill parasites like Mike says, or maybe instestinal parasites or bacteria that are damaging organs important for osmoregulation. Osmoreg stress can show up as rapid breathing even if there's no gill damage. Farmed rams seem to be particulary prone to Mycobacterium infection (along with dwarf gouramis and praecox rainbows), which slowly destroys the kidney, liver, other organs. Rapid breathing followed by either bloating or wasting and then death are all-too-common in rams.

 

[dan11]

Thanks for the responses everyone. Since then, I moved the last 2 german rams into a 25 gallon breeder tank. I've had no issues since. Do you think it would be safe to move them back yet? Thanks`!!

Dan