Whats going on with my Firemouth?

Sorry for the bad picture, didnt look so dirty until I used a flash to brighten the shot...anyway water stains aside.....whats with his scales? He's about 4.5" long and I cant think of anything in the tank that could be fighting with him and he seems to act pretty normal for feedings and behaviour so I dont think he's sick. He's been like this for about 4 months with no signs of improvement. All the other fish seem fine.




Here are the tank stats below if that helps at all in determining if anything in there is causing the damage. The tank is a 120 gallon:

1x 4" Firemouth (him)

1x 5" Chinese algae eater - actually I've seen the firemouth chase him a few times.

1x 12" Common pleco - anyone want this guy for free?

3x 1.5" Skunk Botia

3x 3" Clown loach

8x 2" Black Skirt tetra

5x 2" Emperor tetra

16x 3.5" Congo tetra


I know its overstocked but I plan on moving the 3 skunk botia, chinese algae eater, 5 emperor tetra and 8 black skirts into a 75 gallon. This will leave my 16 congos, 3 clown loach, pleco and firemouth for the 120.

The filteration currently is a single eheim 2213, 2x 2217 and a single 2260. I've done this so they all have biological bacteria developed in them. A 2213 and a 2217 will go for the 75 gallon leaving a 2217 and a 2260 for the 120.

So anyone have any idea what is causing him to look like he's getting beat up?

Ok well can someone at least tell me if the missing scales looke like they are due to fighting or disease at least :help: