help diagnosing my blue ram's illness please...

[big_ed]

hi all,
wanted to know what you all think is ailing my blue ram male.

his colored seems to have faded a little bit and his body looks kind of grey. also, his swimming is labored and he tends to sink to the bottom of the tank. when he swims it is with his head higher than his tail, as if there were a weight attached to his tail.

he will still seek food when it is presented and seems to eat fine.

this has been going on for about 2 weeks with no sign of recovery. i've tried to research the problem but am not having much luck. as far as treatment i've just been trying frequent water changes that don't seem to be helping.

any ideas would greatly be appreciated.

TIA,
ed

 

[farm41]

What do you consider as 'frequent water changes' and how much with each change?

What are your water parameters? Ph,Gh,Kh, Ammonia, nitrite,nitrate?

 

[Randall]

Sick P. ramirezi

Dear Ed,

Sorry to read about your poor little ram.

In addition to the color loss, have you noticed stringy, white feces that stay attached to your fish for a long time? Also, is there any abdominal swelling?

Thanks.

Randall Kohn

 

[Woodsy]

Depending on the source of your rams, under stress there is a virus that they may carry. People I have talked to refer to them as blood viruses (apparently there are three), and they tend to kick in if your rams have travelled a long way, or your tank conditions are not to their liking. As I said, it does depend on your supplier and their breeding stock. I would be interested to know if anyone else has more information on this, because the only reason I would ever have found out about this was that I was going through the price lists at work, and found one lot of rams priced at $6.95, and another at $17.95. Naturally I asked, and that is what I've been told by a few people.