Blue Ram deaths, Suggestions?

["S. Bunch" <sherryb@hpcisp.com>]

I've posted about my six rams that had come down with ich right after I had
gotten them. This was a couple of weeks ago. Well, the last one died a
couple of days ago, just when I thought he had pretty well recovered. All of
the rest of them had died either covered with ich, or else displaying all
the symptoms of ich without showing any spots.

This last one had been covered with ich, but had recovered to the point
where he had only a few spots left when I started noticing a place across
the top of his head. The place looked as though something had been chewing
on him, with scales missing and a actual hole forming in his head. The spot
grew bigger within a couple days time and he died. All water params were at
good levels, PH, etc. The only other fish in the tank were four danios which
seemed to take no notice of the Ram.

I can't give up on raising Rams. I have some more on order from another LFS
and I would like to know if there is anything I can do to better my chances
this time. With the previous group, I did the following:

    Spent approx. 45min. acclimating them to my water. (mine: 6.2PH,
shipping water: approx 5.0? PH test kit hard to read at that level.
    Fed Tetracycline (sp?) antibiotic medicated food twice daily for the
first ten days, with third feeding of flake food daily. All fish were eating
within two days.
    Water change every third day.

After noticing ich:
    Dosed Wardley Complete Cure. Four days later, ich worse. Did water
change. Dosed with Ich Guard (Jungle Labs).
    As bottle label said, after two days with any signs of ich remaining,
did water change, re-dosed. Followed this procedure two more times. All Rams
dead within four days after last dose. All Danios recovered and back to
normal.

Plans for new fish:
    Use different tank to keep from infection from last batch.
    Dose with ich med. immediately after acclimation.
    Feed antibiotic food as before.
    Water changes as before.
    Keep PH approx. 6.0

Any other suggestions? Please stop me from killing again!

TIA,
Sherry





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