Ozone and chlorine inactivation curves were determined in three water types at 20 °C for the destruction of the fish pathogens Aeromonas salmonicida, the etiologic agent of furunculosis, and the enteric redmouth bacterium (ERM). In phosphate-buffered distilled water, 0.01 mg/ℓ ozone inactivated 103 cells/ml of ERM and A. salmonicida in 1/2 and 10 min, respectively. Chlorine at this concentration had little effect on either pathogen and a residual of at least 0.05 mg/ℓ was needed to achieve a complete kill within a 10-min contact time. In soft lake water (30 mg/ℓ as CaCO3) a chlorine residual of 0.1 mg/ℓ rapidly inactivated A. salmonicida and ERM but in hard water (120 mg/ℓ) A. salmonicida was more resistant and 0.2 mg/ℓ chlorine was required. Ozonation of the two lake waters at 90 mg O3∙h−1∙ℓ−1 (equivalent to a 0.01 mg/ℓ residual in ozone demand-free water) was required to destroy both pathogens within 10 min.In untreated soft lake water 103 cells/ml of A. salmonicida survived only 2 days, while the ERM bacterium (103 cells/ml) survived even after 20 day s in soft and hard untreated lake waters.