Heater burn?

[DreamReef04]

Hello everyone,

How can I determine if my orchid dottyback was burned by the heater? Is this even possible? The fish has white discoloration on one side of his body. Hes also breathing heavy and not active and continues to lay upright at the bottom and in a corner of the tank. He is currently in my QT with 2 other clownfish. They have all been getting along so I know it's not aggression. After I notoce the discoloration I did a water change and noticed a white flaky substance on the heater. It was only on one section of the heater. Once I pulled the heater out the substance started smoking. It didnt stink or anything though. My dottyback has been in the QT for almost 3 weeks and is only 7 days into copper treatment. What should I do? Thank uou

 

[EmdeReef]

If it wasn’t able to swim and got stuck to the heater could happen. If the scales were actually stuck to the heater I would expect more severe wounds on the fish. Can you post pics?

 

[DreamReef04]

These were the best I could get yesterday. Hopefully I can get better pics today. You can see slight discoloration in the picture

 

[DreamReef04]

Now that I'm thinking about it, I do have PVC piece in the tank for cover. Could the heater burn a section of the pipe? If that's the case, is there a disease that would cause discoloration on the fish?