not a good day

with the fishes, yesterday. Well, water parameters all seem fine. A few of the Zebra Danios appear to have a white speck on the edge of their lip. I have a sinking feeling this might be columnaris from the 5 gallon tank I got rid of- I did bring plants over from that tank- thought I was careful rinsing them with diluted bleach and hot water- maybe some survived- would it have re-infected after so long? Regardless, I've begun giving the Danios 30-min salt bath- that's a 5 min soak in 1 Tablespoon of aquarium salt dissolved into 1 gallon of water, and then re-balancing them with tank water added at ten minute intervals three times, to ease them back to normal water parameters. Don't want to dose the tank unless I'm sure it's really something to worry about- it would kill all the plants. They seem to deal with it ok. No thrashing or signs of distress while in the bath. They do look very pale when I take them out of the bath, but show their normal colors within a few min of going back into home tank.

I intended to give them a salt bath three times a day, but have only managed to do it twice. At first it wasn't too hard to catch the fish, I could lower the net into the water, wait until a fish swam above it, and scoop it out. But they learned quickly, and started darting away into corners and under things when saw the net. Lots of places to hide in that tank! Third time for salt bath I was only able to catch one fish.

I decided it was too stressful for them to be chased all over the tank, that might cause weakness and disease in and of itself. The white speck I only see at certain angle and light, maybe it's just the way light bounces off edge of their nose? Wait to see, closely observing- if it gets fuzzy or larger to see more distinctly, without a doubt, will make more effort again to catch them and treat.