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Electric Blue Rams Fighting

Interesting to read the linked thread on inbreeding and poor quality of rams. They’re a stunning fish so it’s a shame that they’re not being bred to high standards. I’m going to persist I think and once the tank is more stable, more densely planted and I’ve added more hiding places I’ll look into replacing the ram. In the meantime, I’ll be doing some research into modern freshwater fish as I’m very much lacking in knowledge here.
 
Hi all,
simon_the_plant_nerd said:
I’ve got ceramic noodles in the filter mainly. It’s a Fluval which has course and fine sponges on the intake, two baskets of noodles, a further sponge then a couple of think layers of floss. .......... Is there perhaps a better way I could set up the filter?
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There is no real way of knowing, but I think that is where your problems may lie.

I don't like filter floss, or fine sponge, inside the filter body. I like all the mechanical filtration to have occurred in the <"intake pre-filter">. I use really <"big sponge blocks">, basically I don't want anything to <"compromise aerobic nitrification in the filter">.
simon_the_plant_nerd said:
My reef had a sump with live rock and a skimmer through a fine mesh bag so a very different set up to what I have now.
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I believe marine aquarists went away <"from trickle filters">, because they are "nitrate factories", but that is exactly what <"I want my filter to be">, I want it to be a <"nitrate factory">.

Skimmers could prove useful in a freshwater aquarium, the issue is that <"they don't work very well">, mainly because freshwater is a much less dense and viscous medium compared to sea-water.
simon_the_plant_nerd said:
Interesting to read the linked thread on inbreeding and poor quality of rams.
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It is a shame. I <"really like dwarf cichlids">, but they are difficult to obtain, because this is a hard tap water area and they aren't popular fish, but I will go back to keeping Apistogramma baenschii etc. eventually.

cheers Darrel
 
dw1305 said:
There is no real way of knowing, but I think that is where your problems may lie.
I don't like filter floss, or fine sponge, inside the filter body. I like all the mechanical filtration to have occurred in the <"intake pre-filter">. I use really <"big sponge blocks">, basically I don't want anything to <"compromise aerobic nitrification in the filter">.
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I am with Darrel on this one @simon_the_plant_nerd! I am very much looking forward to the 'Full Inquest' and the results! 😀

If you want to give me some specifics of the media (i.e. brand, amount, size, volume etc) I can do a little bit of math to work out how you can increase your surface area. It will only be an indication, but its interesting nonetheless.
 
simon_the_plant_nerd said:
It’s a Fluval which has course and fine sponges on the intake, two baskets of noodles, a further sponge then a couple of think layers of floss.
Click to expand...

simon_the_plant_nerd said:
Is there perhaps a better way I could set up the filter?
Click to expand...
Yes there is. I'm assuming you have the 07 range?

Here's how mine are set up.

Pre filter.
20230921_192605.jpg

Bottom tray.
20230921_192547.jpg

Mines a 407 so the next 3 trays look like this.
20230921_192659.jpg


Apologies if you have already posted a picture of your tank but I don't think I've seen it. If it's not bare bottomed, at least moderately planted and not ridiculously over stocked with fish then the above media arrangement will provide more than enough surface area for any beneficial to populate.
 
John q said:
Yes there is. I'm assuming you have the 07 range?

Here's how mine are set up.

Pre filter.
View attachment 214965

Bottom tray.
View attachment 214966

Mines a 407 so the next 3 trays look like this.
View attachment 214967


Apologies if you have already posted a picture of your tank but I don't think I've seen it. If it's not bare bottomed, at least moderately planted and not ridiculously over stocked with fish then the above media arrangement will provide more than enough surface area for any beneficial to populate.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I have the 207. I have lots of ceramic noddles in there but a similar arrangement of foam as you do. I also have a HOB but that’s mainly just behaving as somewhere to put some emersed plants. I’m probably over cautious on filtration and haven’t had enough experience to truly trust the power of my plants yet.

I haven’t started a tank journal but it’s on the list for this weekend. I think that would be the best thing to do now.
 
John q said:
In todays society we can fix this with SSRIs, or (SNRIs), if your up for it. In my day good old Benzodiazepines made the tank look less cloudy, alas they got replaced with Beta-blockers...

jokes aside guys... Will pick up this thread int morning xx
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Priceless :lol:
 
simon_the_plant_nerd said:
I think I’m at fault for the bacteria bloom to be honest. The tank is only small but has an oversized canister filter which I originally seeded with media from my pond filter and some bottled bacteria for good measure. Last week I did some maintenance at water change time, moved some plants around, added more floaters, pulled some algae off and generally just faffed with the tank. I cut out the fertiliser completely which was probably also a mistake. The remaining algae died quickly but on Monday morning we had the distinctive white cloud bacteria bloom. I immediately did a 50% water change but the smaller snails were already dead and one cherry shrimp. I changed a further 30% yesterday as the water still appeared slightly cloudy but no more deaths.
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OK, OK, OK, I went a bit mad Friday. 😀

As stupid as it sounds, I wanted to see if I could disrupt my aquarium with similar maintenance and see what happens. (I said it was stupid right!?) So what I did was this:
  • Removed some older plants which were not doing very well in my low tech tank.
  • Added 5 new plants (thanks for the advice to everyone who helped me!).
  • Ruffled up my gravel due to plant adds/removes and also some algid removal at the edge.
  • Performed a 50% water change on the aquarium.
  • Cleaned all sides of the aquarium to remove any biofilms and algae.
  • Cleaned the pre-filters (NOT the biomedia in the main compartment of the Oase).
  • Dosed with my APT complete as soon as water change was finished.
  • I added a rock because my son thought it would be 'cool'. 🙂
That's a bit more than I like to do, but there was only one way to induce a bloom! (I mentioned this was stupid right!?)

As of today and so far(!), there has been no bacteria bloom, and once the sediment settled, the water returned to clear and has remained there. (Fish are giving me a dirty look, but they are OK!)

With such a disruptive piece of maintenance, I can only assume that the large amounts of untouched/uncleaned bio media in the main chamber of my Oase's must have just dealt with any 'loss' or issues and kept my environment stable.
 
BRJP1 said:
OK, OK, OK, I went a bit mad Friday. 😀

As stupid as it sounds, I wanted to see if I could disrupt my aquarium with similar maintenance and see what happens. (I said it was stupid right!?) So what I did was this:
  • Removed some older plants which were not doing very well in my low tech tank.
  • Added 5 new plants (thanks for the advice to everyone who helped me!).
  • Ruffled up my gravel due to plant adds/removes and also some algid removal at the edge.
  • Performed a 50% water change on the aquarium.
  • Cleaned all sides of the aquarium to remove any biofilms and algae.
  • Cleaned the pre-filters (NOT the biomedia in the main compartment of the Oase).
  • Dosed with my APT complete as soon as water change was finished.
  • I added a rock because my son thought it would be 'cool'. 🙂
That's a bit more than I like to do, but there was only one way to induce a bloom! (I mentioned this was stupid right!?)

As of today and so far(!), there has been no bacteria bloom, and once the sediment settled, the water returned to clear and has remained there. (Fish are giving me a dirty look, but they are OK!)

With such a disruptive piece of maintenance, I can only assume that the large amounts of untouched/uncleaned bio media in the main chamber of my Oase's must have just dealt with any 'loss' or issues and kept my environment stable.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the research. Your results are kind of what I would expect though with a well functioning filter.

I haven’t had chance to carry out the inquiry this weekend for the reasons in the next post.
 
Sadly, the remaining Ram has died today.

I’ve observed him all weekend and he started being uninterested in food on Friday and swimming lazily. No change on Saturday. Today he was struggling to lift his tail and staying close to the substrate. Still not interested in food. It looked like swim bladder problems so tried to offer some green peas (never had luck with it in the past but worth a try). No interested.

He came out of the main tank and into a QT today. He spent a lot of time on the bottom of the tank inside a ‘cup cave’ before attempting to swim this evening. He was struggling to swim and was upside down, on his side, upright and moving erratically before dying shortly after.

Water parameters in tank are good and all other inhabitants seem really well and healthy.

Very disappointed as this has been my first attempt at getting back into fish keeping for many years.

EDIT: Worth noting that this fish also had scrapes and bruises from fighting and probably wasn’t in the best of health.
 
Everything I've read about Rams suggests they are quite a tricky fish. Don't be too discouraged, especially as the other fish seem fine.
 
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