White bump on my ram

[Ram lover]

Hi, can anyone tell me what this white bump on my Bolivian ram is?  Both my rams have it.  They both have this on the same spot, the left side of their face.

[Spencer Heaton]

Hi Ram lover,

There is no way to know for sure if it is illness related or an injury but if they both have it then we can lean to something other than injury.

Couple of questions:

1) Have you done any water tests lately and if not then perhaps lets start there. If you have can you post your results

2) Is there any aggression that you have seen between any of the fish in the tank

3) Have you seen your fish itching or flashing against any hardscape or the glass trying to remove this bump?

4) What is your water change/maintenance schedule, tank size and temperature kept at?

Rams are more sensitive to water temp and quality than most fish and if these are not kept at a good level then they seem to be more susceptible to illness than most fish.

Please let us know about the above and lets see if we can dial this in for you.

 

Spencer

Edited March 2, 2022 by Spencer Heaton

[Ram lover]

1) yes i have done water test, ph is 7.0, ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0 and nitrate is about 20 ppm

2) i have added these 2 rams about a month ago, they get along fine 

3) i havent notice any changes in their behavior such as itching or rubbing

4) i do a 30% water change either once or twice a week.  i currently have them in a 15 x 15 x 15 cube, temp at 71

fyi, i added excel flourish recently to help my browning plants and added a spirulina pellet to their diet.

thanks for any advice you can give.

[Spencer Heaton]

Hi Ram Lover,

Right off the bat I would say 71 is too cold for them. I keep all my Ram's between 77 and 84 as they are warm water fish for sure. When I did have a breeding pair of Bolivian Rams (which I believe is what you have from the picture) I kept them in a community tank at 77 degrees.

The only issue with the higher temps is you need to be careful if it is a community tank as some fish may not do great with higher temps. It also can shorten their life a bit overall as the warmer water speeds up their metabolism but I have found them to be a lot healthier and happy if kept in warmer water. I have found a lot of issues can be avoiding with keeping Rams at higher temps.

15 gallons is an ok size for them and 1-2 water changes a week will definitely help them at that tank size as not a lot of room for error, so you should be good there.

I assume the 20ppm of Nitrates is due to adding fertilizer (since you comment about adding Excel) so the live plants should eat that up but other than this it looks like your water parameters and maintenance schedule are great.

Personally, I have played a bit with Excel Flourish and I have not found it to do that much with browning of plants (I assume some Java Ferns in the tank) I also worry about it being a chemical that not a lot is known about so I choose to live with some brown or remove those leaves often as I have found new growth takes a bit before they brown. I do know Excel it is pretty controversial in the hobby so i would recommend use it with caution and do your research as there are a lot of pros and cons IMO.

Anyway, my recommendation would be to first start with determining what temperature the other fish you have in this tank can live at and see if we can move that up a bit (you will need to increase this slowly like 1degree per day at most if this is possible with your other fish)

I do not usually go right to medication in these situations but I am wondering since you said you got them about a month ago did you treat the tank with the Quarantine Trio when you got them? If not that might also be an option with the temp increase.

Or if you are willing to upset your plants a bit for a few weeks, I would use some salt in the tank (your plants will not like it but it is only for a short period of time and they usually recover just fine). I have found Salt and higher temps are the magic bullet when fish seem to have something off with them if caught earlier enough and it is easier than medication I believe on their livers.

I know I wrote a lot here and hopefully you find this helpful but if you have any further questions on this please just let me know.

Take care,

Spencer

Edited March 3, 2022 by Spencer Heaton

[Spencer Heaton]

Hi Ram lover,

Just wanted to check in - how are your 2 little guys doing?

Edited March 7, 2022 by Spencer Heaton

[Ram lover]

Hi Spencer,

Both my rams are doing ok. I decided to move them back to my more established 55 gallon tank temporarily.  The bumps seem to have lessened.  I’m thinking I should scrap my 15 gallon display tank and build myself a bigger display tank for them.  Hopefully they will do better and so will my plants since I don’t have much experience with aquatic plants.

Thanks

RL

[Spencer Heaton]

HI Ram Lover,

I am glad they are doing better - is the temp higher in the 55 Gallon - just curious?

I had a tough time in the beginning with aquatic plants - I have always been good with house plants but struggled at first with aquatic plants.

You may be able to use the 15 gal to leave on though. I setup a 10 gallon bare bottom with a sponge filter and a cheap light I got for like $20.

I bought a bunch of plants I liked both easy and medium and put then in the tank for a few weeks and I just watched them. Any that converted without anything else from me I knew liked my water.

Some of the others that were not doing so well I bought little clay pots and put aqua soil in them and found which ones did better then and I knew then they could grow with soil/ferts in my water.

The ones that did not survive I knew it was not me, it was my water or that I would need a high-tech setup to even try to grow those.

I did that for about 6 months and tried new plants to replace the dead ones. Now I only keep ones that I know work with my water and if I use root tabs and ferts everything does really well as I did not want to get into the whole CO2 cost - maybe one day!!!!

Anyway - just an idea for a use for your 15 gallon and plants.

Take care,

Spencer