I noticed some brown, dry areas on one of my females cyrtopsis a couple days ago. I though it was just some dust under the edge of the scales or something, but it has gotten worse, and now one of my males is showing symptoms of the same thing, but under his jaw. Both of them only show it on their vent side, and it doesn't seem to be restricted to one scale at a time, but goes right through some scales. It is a mid to dark brown, with no swelling, pinkness, or other signs of irritation. It has a crusty look, but I don't want to try to scrape anything off. They aren't rubbing or itching, but they have not yet shed since it appeared.

To give some background info- they are on a coconut blend substrate with some moss. All the plants in their enclosure are fake. I sanitize everything before adding it to the tank. I haven't had the tank set up long enough to have a cleaning regiment to discuss. Before this tank they were in a temp hold tank with a hide, water bowl, and paper towel. They are eating feeder guppies (though neither of the infected ones ate last feeding) about once every 5 days, as well as the occasional worm when I can convince them to eat it. They don't spend an excessive amount of time in the water, and are very good about basking. They have a lamp as well as ambient light, and the temp in their tank ranges from 72 in the cool side to 87 in the warm (they are Arizona natives and get cranky if I drop the temps any). Temp drops to about 75 all around at night.

I've quarantined the female and will be quarantining the male as soon as I get a new set up for him (I only have one quarantine tank). It really doesn't look like normal scale rot- anyone have any ideas? Sorry about the bad picture- phone's aren't really great for this kinda thing. I don't want to stress her too much, but I'll see about a better picture later tonight.
My other female and male are perfectly health and don't show any symptoms.


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