Not so perky perc, any ideas?

[coachfraley]

Two days ago I picked up a pair of perc. clownfish for my 10g (which will soon be moving to a 16g). The pair looked good in the store, although they weren't moving around the display quite as much as I would have liked. The LFS gave me a good deal, so I picked them up. The first day, they both ate fine and everything appeared OK. Yesterday the female started to appear very listless and just stayed in one spot in the middle of the tank (with the male hovering around her). Today when I showed up to work, the female's behavior was the same, and some strange raised marks (lesions?) have appeared on both of her sides (in the exact same pattern). She has not eaten since the first day, and her gills are slowly "flapping" non-stop.

The whole time, the male has been great. He is eating well, and he is behaving as normal as a clown can. My tank parameters are great, and I had a VERY healthy dottyback in the tank up until the day I got these percs. (I traded the dottyback for a royal gramma).

Sorry for the length of the post but I wanted to get in all the info. Here is the female:
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Here is a shot of the tank, so you can see the male, and where she is chilling:
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[Dave66]

Coach,
You really need to isolate her immediately. That appears to be marine velvet, Amyloodinium ocellatum. Medications containing copper will cure her if she's not too far along, but the disease is highly contagious and if you don't want to lose both you must act NOW by removing her. YOU CAN NOT treat her in the tank, as the copper sulfate in the medication will kill all the inverts in your tank. You'll never be able to keep a crustacean of any kind in there.
I can not stress the import of this enough. You must act right now.

Dave

[coachfraley]

Thanks Dave!

The only hospital tank I have is a 2.5g, but I guess it will have to do. I can move her into there tonight. What a bummer...:ssad:

I will research velvet and administer the meds. (I am pretty sure I have some copper med. at home).

Thanks again Dave.

[cocoa_pleco]

not good! 2 weeks after i transferred my oscellaris to the 55g he got sluggish, and eventually just layed in the aragonite gasping and died

[Fenix]

sorry about your fish but i like your rock formation.

[coachfraley]

Well, I set up a hospital in a 15g (that I forgot I had in my shed) and I dosed the tank with coppersafe, but I think it is all a little too late. The clown looked really bad this morning. I think the move from work to home just compounded the stress on the fish. I don't think the fish is going to make it to this evening.

Now I am just hoping the male does OK!!!!! It sounds like velvet is pretty fast to act, so I guess I should know if he has it pretty quick. He ate well this morning, and he is swimming around OK...We'll see.

[coachfraley]

The female didn't make it:ssad:

At lease the male appears to be fine. He is swimming all over the tank, and he is eating well. I am going to try and keep a real close eye on him for any symptoms, hopefully if he does get it, I can catch it quicker, and give him some treatment.

Assuming the male is ok...now I don't know what to do on my stocking for this tank. I was going to have the pair of percs and the gramma. But now that plan is down the tubes.

I would think that it would be best not to add any fish for a while to make sure the velvet has cleared out of the tank. If I do wait for a while, is it going to be tough to re-pair my perc??? Would I be best off to just wait and choose a different species of fish?

Any thoughts would help. Thanks