Re: Blue Ram deaths, Suggestions?

["Scott Olson" <olson7@hotmail.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.

Sherry,

This sounds exactly like hole-in-the-head disease, or hexamita.  It is 
treatable - as always, the earlier the better.  I can't remember the names, 
off hand, of the medications that are effective, but it runs in my mind that 
'Clout' works pretty well.  It also runs in my mind that this is a disease 
caused by a protozoa, rather than a bacteria.

At any rate, don't give up on the rams, they're well worth the effort!  With 
Rams, it's always better to work with wild stock, if available.  Most of the 
Ramirezi available from LFS are raised in Singapore, or elsewhere in Asia, 
they are inbred, fed hormones to enhance color, and very often die early.

One thing, too, about rams is that they like warm water, which ich doesn't 
like!  A good temperature range for Rams is 80 to 85 farenheit, and the 5.0 
ph in the fish bag is not too acidic for Rams!

Good luck!

Scott
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