What happened?

[Incredulous_Ed]

My male german blue ram died this morning. Yesterday he had pronounced gill movements and sometimes was hanging at an odd angle. I did a WC and went to bed. He was dead this morning. The female is perfectly healthy. The levels are good, the tank is at 80-82f, good filter, not overstocked, the three other fish besides him are fine. What happened?

[~Erik3.8.07~]

german blue rams have the unfortunate reputation to just suddenly die without reason. I think its has something to do with the american breeders injecting them with hormones so they color up faster. My tank had gotten ick and i treated it and everything cleared up and both my rams looked perfectly fine after and appeared to have recovered perfectly, but suddenly, a week and a half after finishing the treatment one just died. No signs of disease or fights, just died.

I did notice the day before he died that his belly looked sunked in which means he probably wasnt eating so if you buy another look to make sure yours doesnt have a sunk in stomach.

[Incredulous_Ed]

hmm.......I think he died of iridovirus, which is where they turn darker in color like he did. maybe a sign of hormone injection. How many do you have erik? how much did they cost? my lfs sells them only sometimes for 15 us dollars.

[~Erik3.8.07~]

wow mine were alot less, i got 2 and they were 7$ each at my lfs

[Kaga's Kritters]

i got a german ram and it was only $5.50 at my lfs. mine is decent size and isnt very colorful, so maybe mine wasnt injected with anything...hmm

[~Erik3.8.07~]

is yours male or female? females tend to be less colurful then males and if not injected, will probably color up later as it gets older