Ram Ill, Ok To Treat With Shrimp In Tank?

Help! One if my Bolivian Rams has darkened in colour, swollen a bit, sat at bottom of tank, not eating and has white cotton wool fluff on one gill. Pets at home gave me interpet no.8 to treat it for fungus and fin rot. Other fish look fine. It says to treat whole tank but I have 3 wood shrimp and a snail in there. Nothing in the instructions about affecting them so will I be ok to leave them in?!?! Anybody done this?  Thanks!

Set up is 120l planted community tank. Water levels normal when checked this morning.

Thanks Sue. Unfortunately not and the instructions say to treat the whole tank to prevent spreading.  Fingers crossed for the shrimp, as you say it would surely say if there was a risk 

I'm sorry to hear that. Sometimes things like fungus or rot set in the fish is already sick and weakened.

How long had you had the fish? If you got it only recently, it could have been sick when you got it.

You need to be careful when introducing another fish with both Bolivian rams and 'ordinary' rams. Putting a male and female together doesn't guarantee they'll get on as they can be very picky about mates. Get another female by all means but keep an eye out for any signs of aggression.

What do they look like when viewed form above? Do their scales stick out like a pine cone? That is the point when treatment is usually too late. This is called dropsy, a symptom of underlying disease rather than a disease itself. The pineconing happens when the fish's kidneys fail and fluid builds up inside, that's the reason it is usually incurable.

If their scales are flat, you might be able to save them. You'd need a medication that treats internal bacteria, though we can't buy antibiotics without a vet's prescription so meds are limited. Try Interpet anti-internal bacteria or eSHa 2000.

If the readings were off the scale, you need to do as many water changes as it takes to get them both below 0.25. That will likely remove just about all the medication so redose afterwards. Keep an eye on those levels and do more water changes if they start to go up again. Having them in the water will make the fish sick without any infections to cope with.
If you have to do a water change, do it just before adding a dose of medication. If it is a med that is not dosed every day and you need to do a water change on a non-dose day, add enough afterwards to replace the amount of med that is removed, eg a 25% water change, and 25% of the dose.

These medications are not supposed to affect the filter bacteria. In theory.