Hopefully Star will be able to shed some light I do think you need to check your hardness as well though, just to be on the safe side, and confirm the PH test from the tap and after 24 hours. Sometimes fish can harbour disease but not show symptoms, so it is possible that your original two are carrying something that they're immune to but the new ones are not, I'm not saying that's the case for sure but it's not an impossibility so we need to consider all possible options

thanks, i know,it's horrific
i think its soft to slightly hard? cant find info.
no fish never died, it was adopted from someone keeping it in bad conditions,had floaty probs but since been in big tank has been fine.
yes that one and a little pearlscale are in the same tank as the dying ones and are fine.
no they have never looked sick,one just floated after eating.
i fed them daphnia,sweetcorn and hikari gold.
the poo from new fish was white dust and long white stringy poo.sure sign of stress.
ph is 7-7.5 all the time in my tanks after standing for however long.
i really don't think water quality would kill fish as quick as this.
i read really bad shock can cause poison to enter their bloodstream which sounds more likely.

@sue
i think the 5 fish i bought being in separate vats with lots of fish and then all put in 1 bag for transport would be more likely source of infection than my 2.

How long did it take from them going into your tank to showing these symptoms? i'm really not sure what to suggest as the cause, you certainly need to speak to Star asap tomorrow. Stress from the journey shouldn't really have been too bad, I've transported fish a fair distance before with no ill effects and they all looked good in your pics from when they arrived, no redness in their fins or anything obvious to indicate a problem Stringy poo can be a variety of things, sometimes it's not really anything, can just be that they've not eaten a lot which is possible if they've been fasted prior to their journey to reduce waste perhaps. That's speculation though, you need to get the bigger picture from Star really.

i remember one case on here of a goldie bought online which was transported to Scotland from the south of England. He was really very unwell almost immediately and we traced it to difference in hardness of water, the owner added stuff to raise the hardness and fishie looked better very quickly. There was also someone who couldn't understand why her new fish was going mad with scratching itself almost the second she put it into her tank. That was traced to the fact that she took water from a well so wasn't using water conditioner as no chlorine etc in the well, but the water conditioner also deals with heavy metals so as soon as she added some conditioner the fish calmed down. So differences in water conditions can cause some very fast reactions from the fish, it's just something to bear in mind when looking at the bigger picture for causes for all this

How are they now?

I really don't think it's a disease that came in with them as they showed no signs on arrival and as you say, were likely to have been in separate containers at Star - in fact they looked good on the pics. I doubt Star would have shipped them if they' looked "off" on the day

I'm still betting on a drastic change in water hardness/conductivity/alkalinity and temperature immediately after the stress of the journey.

Not relevant to this issue, but does your pH vary? The difference between 7 and 7.5 is quite a lot so may be worth looking into as a separate issue. Also, did you ever find out why it went so high just before the end of the cycle - I think it went over 9 didn't it?

EDIT: Re Suey's suggestion that stringy poo is down to fasting - it's pretty much standard practice to fast fish for 24 hours before shipping to reduce waste production in transit and help water quality, so quite likely

as soon as they arrived the red oranda which has the pine coning now was swimming erratically,hangind tail up.
the ranchu just sat straight on tank floor and never moved since,still there breathing fast.
the white red cap had red vein in tail but only 1.
all went v lethargic soon after arriving but i thought was just stress?
when i threw food in they moved and ate then sat again.
noticed the panting today and was worried then they went onto there side and died.

Looks from a previous thread from someone in Merseyside as though the water is very soft - 2 dGh. That would be very different to Star's water.

http://www.fishkeeping.co.uk/modules/ ... wtopic.php?post_id=286815

So sorry to read this, bit no new ideas above what's already been covered

@ fishlady the ph was high as the tank had been cycling for months (normal i read?)its 7.5 after standing and 7.5 in the tanks.
yes seperate containers then all shipped in 1 bag so anything could have transfered.
they did show signs on arrival but i thought it was stress.
one had an mark on scale which has turned into pine coning. one had fungus on mouth. and 1 had a red vein in tail.
all were sitting.
hope its not hardness, would that really kill fish?

Quote:

The cycling process reduces pH, it doesn't raise it so there was soemthing strange happening there.

Quote:

Yes it can do. If there's a sudden large change in hardness it can affect their ability to regulate the fluid balance in their bodies and cause shock. In general Goldies do better in harder water anyway - very sofft water can cause them some problems long term, but the biggest problem is sudden changes. If the gH and kH of your water are very different to th supplier's water that could be a factor, especially as whatever this is was so rapid.

EDIT: Am not saying that's definitely the cause, just that it's a possibility. Check with Star and see what light they can shed on this.