Gill Passman wrote:
"Billy" wrote in message
...


"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message
...

They are absolutely fine until it happens. Swimming around happily
and
feeding well - last night everyone was absolutely normal. No sign
of any
bloating or distress or any marks on them at all. Then I just find
them at
the bottom of the tank hardly moving and then they die. Gill
movement is
normal and as I said there is no sign of any fungal infection or
injury....



Any foreign materials in tank? Recent addition of decorations?



Nothing added since the Barbs in Jan/Feb....also nothing taken out (apart
from the dead fish). No new decorations or even plants. Very small ammonia
spike (lowest reading) about 9 days ago along with a slightly higher pH
reading (which I'm not convinced I read properly). Rectified all of this and
have not had any suspect readings since a week ago last saturday but lost
another Mollie shortly after. No difference in how I treat the water -
follow the same routine on all of the tanks and there is no problem in any
of the others.

The only thing that I have done differently, a couple of weeks ago, was to
use a magnetic algae scraper. Haven't used it again as the fish kept trying
to get between it and the glass so I decided it was too risky to use it in
the tank.

It it is not disease or agression, I can only think that there is something
toxic in the water that I don't test for. But if that is the case I would
have expected them all to be carried off at once or at least within a few
days but this has not happened.





Test Kit is the same one I use on all the tanks and know to be accurate.



Usually, bacterial disease overwhelm fish quickly as you're seeing.
Parasites take longer. I would start feeding an antibacterial food, if
you can find one. You also might remove your biofilter media, treat the
tank with 2 ppm potassium permanganate for four hours (there should be
instructions on the bottle for amount), add dechlorinator - the
permanganate should change from pink/purple to brown, and then put the
filter media back. This will reduce both bacterial and parasitic
populations in the tank.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com