Small gouge on my ram cichlid
 

My ram seems to have a small gouge on the side of his head, just gehind the mouth. At the bottom of the gouge is a mole-like blemmish. I don't think its from any kind of fight because his partner is passive and the only other fish are harlequin rasboras, and they haven't bothered with him at all.

Is it some kind of disease? He doesn't seem to be acting odd as far as I can tell (I've only had him for a week) and none of the other fish show anything like this.

Welcome to Tropical Fish Keeping forum.

There are several members with experience in diesease issues, better than I have, and they may have comments. A photo would help them a lot though, if you could post a clear one of this fish?

Byron.

Thanks for the welcome.

My camera isn't that great (its a cameraphone) so the pictures are pretty blurry. Here's the best I could get.

Attachment 17640

Attachment 17641

The spot is most visible on the overhead picture, it is the red bulge near the head. It seems to have some blood at the bottom of it now. The fish still seems fine behavior-wise and there isn't any sign of heavy breathing.

I lost one of my Wild Columbian rams to hole in the head. Look under hole in the head and see if it looks like any pictures of it. Mine was fine for awhile but it got worse and it died. I gave it medicated flake food for hole in the head.. My angelfish died of it also. I was told that Rams can get this. I hope it is not hole in the head and your Ram gets better.

Hopefully those with experience with have some suggestions; I've no idea myself what this might be.

Thanks for the help. I sure hope its not hole in the head though. I'll look into hole in the head more thoroughly.
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Well, hole in the head or not, my ram died earlier today. That was the fastest death by disease I've ever seen, just over 24 hours.

Whatever it was doesn't seem to have infected any other fish, that's a plus.

I'm really sorry to hear that :(

Hope that's the end of it.