Hi everyone. I'm looking for a bit of advice.

A few days ago, I noticed a small red mark on the face of one of my clownfish. I assumed he had perhaps caught himself on a piece of rock, or had perhaps been the victim of aiptasia or something hiding away in my tank. He seemed perfectly fine other than this mark, so decided I was just going to keep an eye on him.

Fast forward a few days later, and the mark has gone a tiny, tiny little bit puffy or perhaps swollen, but definitely less red so it looks to me like it's healing. However, the fish has taken to sitting still on the sand from time to time and not always remaining upright when he does so. It is always in the same spot, and not all the time, as other times he swims around perfectly normally. However, I am becoming concerned because the amount of time he spends not swimming seems to be increasing and he seems to be more and more on his side when he's sat there.

I've had a look at this website: http://www.chucksaddiction.com/disease.html
But it doesn't seem to match anything on there, and I am of the opinion it's probably just a cut which may or may not be healing, and may or may not be infected.

I'm not the type to throw medications about willy-nilly, but as it seems to be getting slightly worse at the moment I thought I'd best ask advice on whether I should do something or just hang in there and see what happens.

Thanks :)

As above, lets have a pic.

Sounds good.  Well done, as he's obviously strong to pull through.

Ash don't worry if your BTA deflates to a tiny straggly lump at night, they're just refreshing the water in their tissue. :)

Yea it does it most nights ATM. i have been testing my water Daily and had an ever so slight tinge to my phosphate test but added some rowaphos in a media bag (the stupid little Juwel filter box has found a use) it went completely clear the following evening. i dosed some calcium to pick my calcium levels up a touch and by god did it shrink. the other morning i came down down and it wrapped itself into a ball almost.

Glad the clownfish is o.k though i would hate to lose my clowns the first 2 things that went into my tank and have probably almost doubled in size. :)

Don't get it! Sods law it'll jump within 2 hours of being in the tank.
They are twitchy lil beggars, they tend to just set off in the direction they're facing until they leave the water or bounce of summat.

Have you got covers or egg crate?

They gorgeous fish. Which colour you gonna get?

Lol cross posted exactly the same advice.

Yeah, I've got the tank covered, with the weir and sump uncovered to keep the oxygen levels where they should be. I know it's not ideal, but I've already had one fish completely vanish off the face of the earth (may or may not have jumped out - I've never found it), so I keep the tank covered. I'm actually looking to replace the lid I have now for better light penetration, but that's another story.

I like the look of both varieties of firefish, so I'm still deciding.

Red Pros
+ My favourite colour is red
+ Only £20 in my LFS as opposed to £40 for a purple one
+ Seem to glow more under the blue lights

Red Cons
- Everyone has the red ones
- Similar in colour to the clownfish I already have, thus reducing the potential variety of colour in my final tank

Purple Pros
+ More unsual
+ More colour variety for my tank

Purple Cons
- I'll be paranoid about killing a £20 fish. I'll be double paranoid about killing a £40 fish, especially since I'm still a beginner and I "lost" one of the two fish I started off with.
- Not sure if I like the look so much.

Ultimately though, it'll likely just go with whatever I like the look of when I go in the LFS on the day. I've been in there before, certain that I wanted this one or that one, and changed my mind when I actually look at them. Money isn't really a problem, it just makes the consequences if I kill it a little more annoying. When I lost that clownfish they tested my water and everything was fine and they replaced it free of charge, which was very honorable of them, so that gives me a little piece of mind. I also plan to expand my CUC this week too. I'd like some different critters as well as more of what I already have, but don't know what to go for yet.

My lighting unit is 4 T5 bulbs, but I'm only running three at the moment. I know iQuatics do purple bulbs and I don't know if one of those would help bring out the colours, especially in a purple fish, a little more?