White skin on fish's head, harmful or harmless?

[SonicsDC25]

I noticed that there's a white spot on one of my Cynotilapia afra Jalo Reef's head, it's not fuzzy or anything, it's like there's just no color there and is kind of white. Is there anything to be concerned about? He's still very active and eating well, so it's even more confusing as to what it is.

Water parameters are good: 80 degrees F, 8.2 pH, 11 GH, 10 KH, 0ppm Ammonia, 0ppm Nutrite, 20ppm Nitrate. I feed them twice a day (before work and before bed) and a cucumber treat every 1-2 weeks. I change 50% of the water every Saturday, so I'm just not sure what it is.

 

[cichlid-gal]

It looks like it could just be a scrape. It is a rather large area and my biggest concern would be if it does fungus or go bacterial it could be a bit more serious.

Two options...1) don't do anything now and just keep a close watch on him. If things change act; or 2) to eleviate any concerns you could remove him to a hospital tank and do a round of Melafix on him hoping to head off anything further

Looks like a beautiful male by the way. Good luck.

 

[Betty]

I agree with Donna, that it looks like a scrape.

I would make sure to keep the water very clean and keep an eye on it. Salt and/or Melafix is what I use if there is any concern early on.

Not saying it's the cause, but have you noticed any aggression? If you managed to find any male saulosi, there's a chance you could see some chasing or fighting between the males since they are both blue barred.

 

[SonicsDC25]

All the Saulosi are still smaller than the Jalos and are all yellow. There is one other Jalo male that colors up that he chases away now and then, but that's it, there really is no aggression aside from that. Really strange O_O

 

[SonicsDC25]

Well, I was checking out and examining my fish (I stay next to my tank most of the time anyways lol) and noticed that my 2nd Jalo male that at times challenges my tank boss (in original post) has a little bit of the same thing. Excuse the blurry pic, takes forever getting a clear shot with my iPhone lol. There's also a 3rd Jalo, who I'm not sure is male or female yet. It has shown a bit of light blue, but it has a TINY white area as well (no pic since it's impossible to get a pic of him when his head is always down grazing algae). That being said, I'm ASSUMING that these 3 just haven't colored up in this forehead area yet, but I could be wrong since that's just a complete ball park guess  :|  I thought it was a scrape as well, but not sure if that's the case since it looks really clean and the area doesn't really look damaged, so...