yanke Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 hi what is it with rams i can not keep them alive for more then 3 weeks i have had them alone and with other fish i have been keeping fish for over 40 yrs now have breed all kinds of fish from Africans to Americans all kinds and i have had Apistogramma Agassizi that i have breed and keep for yrs. but can not keep rams at all i try blue gold and the Bolivian also same thing after 3 weeks gone with other fish in the same tank being all ok tested the water and all is good tryed with ph. in the 6.4 to 7.0 and try higher ph. all so no luck at all i have tryed 6 times now i give up what is up with rams thanks for looking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattG_Sydney Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 (edited) Hey, What is the water hardness ? I suggest try them in a separate tank with lower PH etc and also put some Indian almonds leaves ? I am not very qualified to respond but it seems the water conditions is the only thing I could think of .. Good luck ! Have a read here about the IAL https://fishlab.com/indian-almond-leaves/ Edited July 28, 2020 by MattG_Sydney Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamgatt Posted July 28, 2020 Share Posted July 28, 2020 Hi Paul You're not on your own mate. Around Christmas i bought 10 beautiful rams off Andrew. They were the best quality rams I had ever seen. They were going great for the first 6 or so weeks and then I lost 1 unexpectedly. Then another 3 or so weeks later, then another 3 or 4 weeks, and the pattern continued. I ended up loosing them all after 6 months. They just slowly withered away on me 1 by 1, would always look skinny and never grew. I also had them mixed with apisto trifasciata and the apistos were fine and were spawning. I also bought 6 electric blue rams which I also thought were top quality. Same thing happened with them (in a different tank) which i had apistogramma cacatuoides growing out in. Same thing, i eventually lost them all too after 7 months. My water parameters always checked out and I never skipped my weekly maintenance. Only thing that I really neglected was water hardness (I don't have an RO unit, nor hardness test kit). Driftwood + almond leaves used to make my pH sit around 6.8. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yanke Posted July 28, 2020 Author Share Posted July 28, 2020 (edited) i think they are so inbred that its making them so weak all i know is i am done with them i love them but done unless i can get them to last maybe we need some wild ones here o i did the almonds leaves and the wood also i had peatmoss in there too Edited July 28, 2020 by yanke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamgatt Posted July 29, 2020 Share Posted July 29, 2020 I'm trying not to be so pessimistic about it. The fish I got were in great condition when I got them, so for me I think it is something I did (or didn't do) for the extra bit of care they need compared to my other fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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