Two dead rams, Four inconspicuous discus

[rustybaker]

So, I had a sad night when I walked in and saw my two new rams both dead in the tank. This tank is about two weeks old, 4 discus, 2 rams, 2 khuli loaches. Ammonia at <.20ppm, ph 7.0, temp 84 degrees. The rams had no visible bites, damage, etc. but were just laying on the bottom dead. The night before and 3 or 4 days I've owned them prior they have been super active, peaceful, hungry, and showing their colors very brightly. The discus hardly noticed they were there.

I am afraid that I might have killed them by having a worm feeding cone in the tank with blood worms. They were pecking at the cone for a while and i'm thinking that because these guys are much smaller than the discus, and because the worms do have an exoskeleton that maybe they weren't able to digest them or overate and that is what killed them. A guy at the LFS told me to be cautious of this with the discus as well. I think i'll be switching to flake.

Is this a rookie mistake or should I be more concerned with other sickness or aggression in the tank?

[camuth8]

The ammonia is a bit high. When you added them, there might have been an ammonia spike and caused the rams to get sick after a while.

I think this is just a rookie mistake because I made the mistake of not watching my ammonia very well when I started on Discus.

[Skip]

worms don't have exoskeltons..

Rams from LFS.. can be week.. they can die for no visible reason..

you have fish in an un cycled tank. hope you are doing daily water changes.