female ram died!! help!!

[nzpouter]

Hi

I have two male blue german rams, one is in a community tank with angels, the other one is in a 2ft tank by himself.

two weeks ago i bought a female ram and put her in that community tank and was hoping she would pair up with the male, she was a lot smaller than the male, but looked healthy and active. three days later she died,
before she die, i noticed her belly was very red and very swollen, she sat at the bottom of the tank and rarely move, and she die...

five days ago i bought another female and put her in that 2ft tank with only a male in it, today she died in the same situation exactly like the last one.

I appreciate if someone can give me suggestions on what is the cause of death, thank you for your help

ps. the size of those two female were about 2cm, my males are twice bigger, and they are still doing fine, i have them for about 3 month now...

 

[aspen]

hi, pouter, how's it going? i think you should get a quarentine tank before adding any more fish. if you want to add a single female, just get a 5 gal, and keep it for a week or 2 and make sure it is healthy. chances are, either your male is too agressive, or the new fish aren't healthy. not a good thing if the rest of your fish get sick.

hth, rick

 

[Neil]

nzpouter,

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

Sound advice from aspen, indeed! Ram males can be tough on females and, if they are smaller when newly introduced, they can be stressed to an early demise. Acclimating(QTing) them first will give a dual benefit of insuring against disease and allowing a weaker or smaller individual to get her footing (or finning) to better handle the rigors of spawning. I would even take this a step further and take the male out of the 20g. once you introduce the female and then reintroduce him a couple of days later. he will be much better prepared to handle the advances (aggression) of the female than the other way around.
Neil

 

[nzpouter]

Thanks for the advice..rick and neil

I do have a quarantine tank, but it was in use for my new african cichlids, and the female ram is quite hard to get here ( not available very often ), so when i came across one, i knew i should not get it yet since i did not have a quarantine tank available at that moment...I guess I was just trying my luck, but......... , I don't think i will do that again..

actually both male were fine with two new females when i put them in the tank, they did not attack or even a bite ( I watched them most of the time ), they even stayed in a clay pot together peacefully, the first two days those females looked fine, then their belly got bigger and reder..and they died..

I am just thinking what would make the female's tummy become so big and so red, dropsy?? egg bound??

Grace

 

[Eva32181]

The big pink belly means the female is full of eggs and ready to breed - this is triggered by the presence of an available male. When I see my female ram get fat I know they're going to spawn again soon. But breeding is stressful - some other lurking illness is killing your rams. Intestinal parasites? Was she gasping at all?

 

[nzpouter]

hi eva

the fish was not gasping, i didn't see the sign of that, she just stayed low in the tank and didn't move much at all, do you know where i can get more information about intestinal parasites, like what is the symptom and how to cure, i would like to learn more about diseases of the fish so when i encounter one i would know what to do about it...thank you

Grace