German Blue Ram trouble

[thebeginner71]

Hello, I had resently baught some German Blue Rams. I got one mature female, and two younger males. Now last week one of my males got sick. He turned almost completley black, and he would just hangout at the bottom of my tank and hardly even move. Well he died a few days later. Then two days ago my other male did the same exact thing.
Before all this happened my rams got ick. So I treated them with medacine and i raised the water tempature in my tank to 86 degrees, and that got rid of the ick spots. All of my other fish are doing ok, so I'am not sure what killed those fish. I dont know if the water tempature was too high or if they caught a disease or what.

[Pam Chin]

Hi beginner,

With rams it is really hard to say. They are very delicate, and they don't like change. They can be picky about food and other tankmates. It is very possible that the move and the ich, was just too much for these younger fish. Many hobbyist try to combat ich by raising the temperature, and Rams should be able to take a higher temperature for a short period of time, so I don't think it was that.

It is very frustrating when you are left with one sex and not the other. So I encourage you not to give up, give it a try again, and make sure you have the right tankmates and foods. Consider keeping them in a quaratine tank for a few weeks until they are used to you, your water, your foods etc. This may help them acclimate better.

Cichlid Power!
Pam