white mouth on german blue ram

[Angelfishie]

My female german blue ram's mouth is white. Also noticed it might be a little ragged and some white hanging from it....like tearing. Anybody know what this is? How do I treat it (live planted tank) and will it spread to other rams?

[Merrilyn]

From your description, it sounds like mouth fungus.

Is it like a piece of cotton wool? That usually grows on injured tissue. It can be on the mouth, or on other parts of the body too.

If you could take a photo, that would be a big help.

In the meantime, get hold of some fungus cure from your local aquarium shop. There are a lot of good brands on the market.

[Angelfishie]

Thanks Merrilyn. I got a fungus treatment and did that on Wednesday. I am supposed to do a second treatment in 48 hours. His mouth is white but doesn't really look like cotton. Just looks like he has white lips except for the little piece that was hanging out of his mouth. Maybe I caught the very beginning stages?

I've been having so much trouble trying to keep rams - both german blue and gold. They go to the top of the tank. I've lost some, too. The LFS has checked my water parameters each time and everything has been fine. Fish don't look damaged or sick....no noticable signs of anything. I have been trying to lower my pH which is pretty high out of the tap so I've been adding a pH decreaser at water changes. It's about 7.2 now, but it fluctuates. Even if I get it below 7.0, it never holds for very long. I have a planted tank and do the yeast/sugar co2. I've been running an airstone most of the time now because of the rams finding their way to the top of the tank quite often. My spray bar is pointed upwards and has a slight ripple effect.

My water is a bit hard kH - 7 and gH - 10, but I put in a water softener pillow to correct that. Temperature is 80 degrees.

[Angelfishie]

I forgot to mention that I also have 2 corydoras, 1 clown pleco and 1 devil sucker and they are doing just wonderfully. I eventually want to get an angelfish or two, but I really wanted to have a few german blue rams and a couple of gold rams established first. I don't know why they are dying after only a couple of weeks when they don't show any signs of trouble except they go to the top of tank, hang for a day or so and then they are gone. I'm doing regular water changes and running the airstone 24/7 at this point.

Please help me or I'm afraid I will give up on rams! :cry:

[mistakes r crucial]

If the situation over your way is anything like it is here you will find good quality Rams are getting hard to find. They seem to fall over at the drop of a hat alot of the time and for no apparent reason.
MAC

[Angelfishie]

It sure seems to be the case with my attempts. I don't know what I could be doing wrong or what I'm not doing that I should be doing. My frustration with these rams is through the roof.

I thought they would be such good tankmates for angelfish, but I'm so discouraged.

Thanks for your input. Is there any place reputable to order rams from?