Problem with dwarf Rams

Hey, I haven't been on this forum for years but I have still have discus but have scaled down and have only one tank of discus. Recently I have been buying dwarf rams for the discus tank and surprisingly they die after a couple of weeks or so. They tend to get darker in colour and once I notice this they are usually dead the same day or the next. The water is kept at 31oC and pH about 7.1 The tank is 5 ft with 7 discus and a couple of rummy nose tetras which are all over a year old or so with no problems at all. I do weekly water changes about 1/3rd of the tank. Water pretty soft (use resin) and nitrates should be pretty low although I have given up measuring all these things. Their diet is predominantly NLS discus food and beef heart 3-4 times a week. Surely these guys are not too hard to keep? I was thinking that if i can keep and breed discus, tropheus and frontosas any other fish should be easy as.

I think it's the diet.

Despite ram is a common companion with discus, the little dwarf cichlid often unable to handle heavy protein food such as beef heart (that's my guess).

Can you try again without having beef heart in the diet? Occasional bloodworm should be plenty for them (and they love BBS).

Yeah i'll agree with Th0mas, i lost a couple of rams too in discus tanks and i also think it's the beef heart. if you want to keep them with discus don't feed beef heart.

Ah, another one dead this morning! I will try the absence of beef heart and see how that goes. Only 4 left now.
Cheers for the advice
Sean

Sorry for the late response - Im pretty rusty on this but I would say 31C is a bit hot for Rams/Dwarfs on a permanent basis. They would probably be happier at around 27 - 28C

Steph

Hi Thanks for your reply. I have stopped all beef heart and as yet have not lost anymore Rams. I don't think I will change the temp as I always get problems with Discus the minute my tank goes below 30oC so much so that I am a firm believer that the trick to discus keeping is the temperature (OK water quality plays a big part too). The remaining 4 Rams seem as happy as Larry, so thanks for the advice.
Cheers

Sean

Nice to hear there's improvement on the situation. I'm no experts with ram (but have spawned them so I think I'm doing something right), think they can handle higher temperature than most apisto can. Hence it's more common to see rams than apisto. with discus.

I have had two rams for a few months with no problems. That is until today. Found both dead in the tank this morning. Checked temp and all those things and nothing was a miss. I have been feeding the discus beefheart since I have had the rams with no problems. I have no answers.

I've kept rams with my discus ok after finally getting the conditions right. Temp at 31 is ok (but 28 is ideal), imo the ph level needs to be below 7 tho. I had mine at a range between 6.5 - 6. They ate the beefheart in the evening and flakes morning. Bloodworms only once in a while. They can't stand any nitrate, ammonia or nitrite spikes, first thing that kills them.First sign they become inactive check the water conditions. Another thing I found was 10-20% water changes every 3-4 days and they'll live happily ever after.
Good luck!!
Janice

Paddyedgar,

Interestingly when things start to go wrong your Rams will be among the first to go - Discus are tough as old boots.

I would suspect a low level of poisen - check ammonia/nitrite/nitrates