Help! Clownfish lympho or something else?

Sharkbait19

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Hi,
After a 90 day fallow period, I bought a pair of pre-quarantined and captive bred clowns for my fluval 13.5 tank. I held them in QT, and they seemed okay and ready to go into the display tank. For the first few days, they seemed stressed. They didn’t stick together, they swam sporadically, but overall, they still ate and showed normal signs of health. Then not too long after introduction, I noticed my mocha developing these black spots on his white band.
1B560D77-01FB-4D22-85D7-88556C030DE8.jpeg
The strange thing is, this exact thing happened to my old clownfish (who died), and also the other new one (it eventually went away). It seems to be a recurring thing, yet, I can’t find any info on it.

As the days progressed, the mocha got worse. Itching on rocks (seems to be more “clownfishy” behavior but worth noting), swimming aggressively against the powerhead, typical signs of external parasites. However, I saw nothing on the fish, and would also have been shocked to see that after 90 days, there was still a parasite.

Then yesterday, in that exact spot where the scales were messed up, the mocha had a large white lump. It made me nervous, because after my previous failure with brook a couple months ago, I didn’t want to overlook anything with my new fish. Today, the spot is much less visible, and is now just a tiny pink cyst, though I do see a bit more around the face. Pics are difficult to get, but here’s some attempts:
B136B849-34D9-40EF-BC1D-96F8B6C9B973.jpeg

076C0DAE-405E-4E78-9DB4-A62C7942DB16.jpeg
AFA01C4E-2794-403E-A186-C514FFAA55BD.jpeg

In addition, there are some discolored lumps on the sides (can be seen a little in the last pic). I feel it would probably be wise to put him into QT, but likewise, I don’t want to put the fish through the stress of QT. Besides some itching, he eats and swims fine, though is often towards the top (both of them do this. I think they beg for food.)
Previously, I had to deal with ich, velvet, flukes, and brook (my old fish were from Petco, so...you know.) This appears far from any of those. I’m mostly concerned about the appearance, as the fish itself seems to be totally fine. So is this a parasite? Or is it likely lympho (which I know little about)? Or is it some kind of fungus? Whatever it is, would it be wise to put it through QT and meds, or should I wait and see if the problem handles itself, the way it seemed to for my other clown?
If you made it all the way to here, any tips and advice would be appreciated. Thanks! 9D983106-E9B7-4B2E-A568-27E70B210781.jpeg
 

Idoc

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Well a few notes..

1. Scratching on rocks is not normal clownfish behavior. Something is irritating the fish terribly for it to do this.

2. You were fallow due to a disease in your tank, but then purchased 2 more fish and put directly in the fallow tank without treating them first. It's not odd that they picked something up after being put in your fallow tank because they were probably had underlying disease before they went into your tank. Now, your tank may be infected again and require to be fallow again.

3. Yes, I'd pull the fish out and run it through a proper quantity period and treat now that the fish are showing signs of disease.

4. Swimming into a powerhead is a dead giveaway to disease, and typical behavior for velvet.

5. The fish don't look bad in the pics, but a couple of the pics look like the fish's color is faded. This could be due to stress... but it could also be the start of the mucus sheathing seen with Brooklynella.

Bottom line, i'd get them out of the tank into quarantine so they can be observed more closely and easily... and treatment started quickly if needed.
 
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Sharkbait19

Sharkbait19

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After some research, I’ve discovered it is HLLE. Seems accurate, it’s displaying all the normal symptoms of it. I’ll have to treat it as such. It also stopped swimming into the powerhead after the one time, so it may not have any external parasites. Obviously, I don’t want to overlook anything, so will still be keeping a close eye on it. Things seem pretty normal to me.
 

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