[Mother Reefer]

I've had my percs. (mated/t.r.) for 2 yrs now and I did encounter a small/short encounter with ick on my female this summer but all has been well till recently.

At about a year the female became chunky in one area (the area under her mouth- to just before the bottom fins (pectoral if I'm correct with the name)-especially where the first set of stripes meet on the bottom- and not further back than her gills).

A few weeks back she became less interested in her food (very strange because she used to be a real piggy) then totally stopped eating. She had a blackish/transparent spot for a day or two then it went away. One day she had a clear stringy feces (only that one time) and it did not return. I thought perhaps she had an internal parasite so I read up on them/asked advise from experienced aquarist friends and decided to wait and see if it would turn into something else. If she had an internal parasite (research said) she would have become emaciated and hasn't but her breathing has become more and more faster (mouth gasping) but the male is showing no problems and the tank parameters are great so I don't believe the water has anything to do with this problem.

Yesterday I woke up to find her swimming near the top and the male would periodically check on her and swim with her but she was swimming around and exploring.

This morning I woke up to find her swimming (more like she was floating on the top than swimming) near the top and her color has faded and she has a few small blackish dots on her and the area that was *chunky* before is not ridiculously enflamed to the point that her gills (area of and around) are swollen too.

The reason why I didn't not administer any medication before was that after speaking with an experienced (25+yrs) aquarist, his point was that we sometimes do more damage than good when administering meds when the problem may resolve itself (and we were not even sure what the problem may have been) and that internal parasites have usually been present in the fish for a long time and many times have a symbiotic relationship. An article stated that one should leave the fish be and hope that the parasite returns to living symbiotically with the host because meds usually do not cure these problems.

Has anyone any insight into this *problem/disease* my clown may have?

This morning I was ready to euthanize her (I absolutely dread this) but when I removed her she started thrashing about in the bowl she was in and showed me how much she protected being removed.

Does anyone have an opinion as to if I should try the meds? Considering how fast these new developments have arisen is there hope for her? Should I put her out of her misery?

Sorry for the long post, any advise would be greatly appreciated.