About 3 weeks ago I bought 6 bristlenoses from ebay, and although they we're fine to begin with I'm kicking myself for being stupid now. What looked like healthy well fed specimins in the bags turned out to be quite ill and I've lost at least 3 before I've managed to get things under control. I should have 4 left, but can only see 3 coming out at any one time, Tommorow I'll have to rip the tank apart and have a proper head count, just in case.

First mistake was not quarantining them. Stupid stupid stupid mistake, I have spare tanks and could have made room to set one up and keep an eye on them, but thought no they'll be fine in the main tank I've got which is full of plants and places to hide, big mistake when you need to keep an eye on a fish that likes to hide. Then a few things conspired to make me miss the first signs of trouble. The heater broke and the tank temps dropped, and I was ill when the first one died. It was a female, looked in good condition but was fat. I thought it was eggs and left it to experience. The next sign to tell me things weren't alright was the new ones started to have white stringy bits in their poo, they weren't just fat they had worms, and probably had a secondary bacterial infection. Bugger. I ordered some wormer online because I know the brands the LFSs stock and none of them would touch a seriuos infestation. The next morning I turn the lights on to another carcass that the fish have helped me do an autopsy on and theres a mass of worms sticking out whats left of the gut. The remaining new BNs are all looking bloated now and are breathing rapidly, I'm now annoyed that I didn't automatically buy in some wormer just in case.

4 days pass (god I hate the weekend sometimes) and the wormer plus arrives Tuesday morning, I read through the instruction and mix a batch up to dose. I wish I could have stayed in for a while but the tank looks like I've dropped a pint of milk in it and can hardly see a thing. I take my son to his appointment and get home about 2 hours later to find BN #3 dead against the filter intake. Its belly is still bloated so I guess the stress of passing its infestation was too much, poor sod. The tank has cleared quite a bit and theres a small mountain of fish waste across the bottom of the tank. 2 of the new BNs are swimming around, visable thinner and breathing normally and I can relax a bit. In a not sure if its related way my attention is drawn to the ruby shark, who's not his usual boistrous self and is sat near the large clump of java fern, looking quite sad for itself, its eyes look swollen and it looks tired. I found him on the evening feed tangled in the plant dead, but I'm not sure if its related to the BN deaths or just old age since he was quite large and bought as a traded in fish at my LFS about 2 years ago, I hope it was age that got him.

Meanwhile it hasn't all been bad news, the shoal of angels decided the new taste in the water is a spawning trigger and the whole shoal started fighting and displaying, including for the first time the youngster (the baby I let the missus keep from last years spawnings). The corys are their normal playful self and even the khulis are out more. The tank water tests fine, ammonia/nitrite 0 readings, nitrate is around 15ppm and pH is ~7.2. If it wasn't for the random BN deaths everything would be ace. I've held off dosing with antibac treatment for now since the survivors seem to be doing better and don't look swollen anymore and the myxazin I have is a pretty heavy medication. I might get some pimafix and melafix in the morning and see how that goes, but I don't want to risk dosing the tank with something if I can help it.

So the moral of the tale, quarantine, even if you think you don't need to, do it. Get the treatments you might need to use before you need them, fish like people only seem to get ill on a night time or at weekends when you can't get to a shop and get what you needed. From now on I think my new stock will get a month in a tank on their own where they can be wormed then have a precautionary antibac treatment before they join the rest of my stock. I was lucky this time and the only other fish to possibly succumb with the new stock was the ruby shark, I guess in a worst case I could have lost the whole lot here which would have been devastating.

Sorry to hear about that, Monkeh.

I hope you vacuumed your gravel, to remove all the worm remains.

They say always quarantine new fish, but I don't think you'd have quite the same risk from an LFS, as from an Internet sale. Particularly when the stock has come from a home tank. Who knows what the conditions are like. But you've convinced me, I'll finally get to buying myself a back-up heater. That'll bring me up to one complete 40 litre tropical setup, ready on standby.

"Wormer Plus", is that the shelf name for the treatment?

Yeah your right, you shouldn't have to take these kind of measure from you LFS, but round here there are 4 I use. One consolidates and imports stock straight to its tanks, no quarantine at all after the just flown half way round the world, but it gets in the rare and unusual stuff its also a pretty new shop so I haven't really had chance to check them out properly yet. 2 other ones buy from domestic wholesalers so the fish have had some quarantine in the chain (I'd think anyway). The 4th shop wasn't too bad a year ago when it was opening, but it pissed off its dedicated fish person and the tanks are really suffering for it. I only ever buy dry goods from their now its that bad. If you want to see them anyways 2 of them are featured in this months Practical Fishkeeping magazine .

The Wormer Plus is a shop brand medicine which I'd heard great things about on the interweb. Its a herbal blend I think, and is heavily laced with garlic but it works and is available

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. Its designed with discus in mind, but anything in the tank with them gets a clean out with them and the only things it should kill are worms, snails and maybe shrimps.

The Aquariums (LFS) I frequent are dwindling. They either get ridiculous with their prices, or they change management, and it goes to crap. A bit like a good Hamburger joint really. I mapped out a 45 degree arc SE from my place, and visited 12 Aquariums one day. Collected Business Cards, jotted down notes, and rated each one. It was a good day, it's just a pity the worthwhile one's, are the farthest away!

There's currently two that I regularly visit. And maybe a third, just 'round the corner from work. Sometimes it just comes down to who stocks my preferred brand of food.

Your 'this months edition', would probaly be our 'June' edition. We're usually 3 month behind with UK, and US publications. But do you think reading up on your LFS's would inspire me to pop 'round anytime soon?

You may have seen the Topic I posted about Australian Fish Farming... We've actually got quite an industry here supplying Ornamental Fish. It's far more extensive than I ever realised. Probaly helps with the Q'tine aspect. I've actually got quite interested in it all, and may try to wrangle myself a visit.

When you mentioned Garlic, I'm now thinking I may have heard something about it on Planet Catfish a couple of months back. I'm sure it was recommended to someone with a similar problem. That may have been when Pumpkin Seeds came up...

You never know, I mean we're only a day and a bits flight away . Looking on the packet of wormer stuff it has may contain: Garlic, Pumpkin Seed, Wormword and Cactus so its covering a lot of the bases, and I need to dose the tank again tommorow to finish the course. I also grabbed a bottle of melafix from one LFS this morning while I got a plastic breeding trap for the baby panda. If the remaining BN's still look a bit bloated after the last womer run I'll start a dose off just in case they've got some underlying bacterial problems.

From 6, 1 survived. I don't think I'll be buying fish mail order form a hobbyist again.

Just don't buy fish from fleabay. Aquabid I trust more than ebay. People on the forums are also pretty trustworthy.

one of the main reasons i would not buy fish online is because of what has happened to monkeh. personaly i like to check out all the fish i buy and where i buy them from. it is also a prudent idea to keep spares for your tanks as you never know what will happen or when (useually when the shops are shut) just as you should also keep some stock of medications as the earlier you can treat the better