What happened to my Rams ?

[gizmo]

Last Saturday I bought 8 Rams (Apistogramma ramirezi), they were all
introduced to a 30 gallon planted tank, which was till the occupied by two
Discus which were happy in it.
The tank has a PH of 7.2 and water are medium to hard. Temperature of about
29-30 C.
They looked very good at the first two days and you could see the males
starting to be a bit rough on each other and the fist looked pretty
colorful.
As from Monday they start dying on me!!! 7 dead (last one today) and there
is only one left......
I have no idea what went wrong.
Please HELP.

10X

Amit

[NetMax]

"gizmo" > wrote in message
...
> Last Saturday I bought 8 Rams (Apistogramma ramirezi), they were all
> introduced to a 30 gallon planted tank, which was till the occupied by
two
> Discus which were happy in it.
> The tank has a PH of 7.2 and water are medium to hard. Temperature of
about
> 29-30 C.
> They looked very good at the first two days and you could see the males
> starting to be a bit rough on each other and the fist looked pretty
> colorful.
> As from Monday they start dying on me!!! 7 dead (last one today) and
there
> is only one left......
> I have no idea what went wrong.
> Please HELP.
>
> 10X
>
> Amit

A large die off within a 2 week period with no other disease-like
symptoms is almost always related to the stress of dissimilar water
conditions, or transport circumstances. Because your water may be ideal
for the species purchased (which incidentally it isn't) is no guarantee
that they will survive the transition. They might have become acclimated
to very different water parameters where you purchased them. They might
have been stressed in transit to the LFS and you purchased them soon
after (so you are within the 2 week window of stress caused by factors
completely out of your control).

All you can do is enquire about the water parameters and the length of
time the LFS has had them. Take a water sample home and test it (NO3, pH
and gH is primarily what is available in home test kits). Test the NH3
and NO2 as well, but these should be zero. Then plan how you will
acclimate them to your water. Preferably use an isolation tank, as there
are many diseases out there which could produce die off as well, and the
symptoms can be subtle. Offhand, strategies for acclimation include
bringing home lots of LFS water, cutting isolation tank water with tank
water gradually over a few days or drip method into the LFS bag.

Be aware that some species are more susceptible to water shock, and
generally, the smaller they are, the more fragile they are (there are
always exceptions though, ie: danios). Rams are neither particularly
hardy or large, and I've always found they did poorly when moved into
harder water (FWIW).

NetMax

[Marksfish]

Here in the UK, rams are notoriously difficult to keep especially if they
are imported from Asia. If I get any, I always try to get the European bred
fish, (normally from Germany) or better still, home grown. They then seem to
have a better survivability record.

Regards

Mark