Hi all, I have a 30 gallon tank with Venezuelan cory cats, a bunch of guppies and their fry, 3 otocinclus, and a panda garra. Tank is heavily planted. 2 months ago I got 2 Bolivian rams, one male and female. They constantly fought and nipped at each other. Last week I realized the male's belly was pretty hollow and he was hiding. He also developed tears on his fins overnight - I think the female bit him. Female still looked great and was very active.
4 days ago on Sunday I dosed with 3 packets API general cure, then realized my UV sterilizer was still on, so I turned it off and re-dosed Monday and then Wednesday. I plan to do another course in 1-2 weeks. Now male is acting more alert, eating, and coming to the front of the tank. He's also started producing lots of white stringy poop, which I assume is the dying worms? Yesterday he had an isolated episode of strange jerking movements, which stopped after about a minute and hasn't recurred.
However the female is acting extremely lethargic - I think this started Sun or Mon? Earlier today I noticed she was tipped forward with head on the bottom - I assumed she was a goner. Then she got up again and started moving around. I did notice a red spot near her eye, which I'm worried is a small hemorrhage. She has no sunken belly or stringy poop at all. What could be going on? I'm wondering if she could be experiencing toxicity from general cure or a different infection not covered by praziquantel and metronidazole. Male seems to be doing better after starting the treatment, but whatever is affecting her seems different.
Of note, I previously had apistogramma agassizii that died after a month of unclear causes (both suddenly started acting lethargic and then died). I then got a dwarf gourami that seemed fine and then suddenly bloated up and died after a month. However all other fish in my tank seem to be doing great, breeding, and laying eggs. But I can't seem to keep any centerpiece fish alive for longer than a month!
Parameters:
pH 7.8
dKH 6
dGH 12+
Ammonia and nitrites zero, Nitrates 10-20 ppm (I admit that recently I did have a nitrate spike of 40 ppm after not doing a water change for 2-3 weeks - my fault).
^^ Female with red spot near eye.
^^ Male with sunken belly, stringy poo, and fin tears/rot.
