They got a bad case of ich. The kind that doesn't respond to salt/heat. I finally had to resort to Ich-X (a friend I trust said he'd had good success with it). Neither had been eating since they got ich. By the time the ich was under control, the male was dead because he never got his appetite back. Sucks when you do what you normally do and it doesn't work. Mother nature is cruel sometimes. She always slays the fish I like the most.