Bolivian ram with Black face?

[BristolCichlids]

A few days ago I noticed my male Bolivian Ram with half of his face jet black! It is only on the left side from the mouth to the first lateral line. Looks like he put on a 1/2 of a mask. It seems to not be affecting him in any way because he is chasing the non-breeding female around away from when he and his mate are preparing to lay eggs. He is also eating fine too! It looks like someone wacked him on the side of the face with something!
I checked the ph, nitrate, ammonia, etc. and found nothing out of wack in the tank? In fact I did a water change yesterday and this has changed nothing with his face. Has anyone ever heard of this? If so, is there anything I can do to get him back to normal coloring?

 

[Cichlids1]

I have heard of this before, either on the apisto list or SACSG. I am trying to find it now with no luck. I remember the discussion talking about what could basically called a stroke. Some of the fish never recovered and perished shortly after. Others lived on and didn't seem to incur any permanent damage. Might try a search of the archives on the Krib. I know I've read about it somewhere.

Ken

 

[Neil]

On the dark side, this is not good. I have had several species of Dwarfs get this. Sometimes it is the hole head, sometimes it is one side and sometimes it includes a part of the body. Quite often they do not die right away, but they usually are on there way.
On the bright side, there has been a few times that this has happened and the fish has lived for quite some time and even spawned.
I don't know what it is, but I can tell you that you should avoid any stressors to the fish that have it. Their resistance is probably way down to secondary infections. Unfortunately, spawning is a stressor!
It does not seem to have any affect on other fish in the tank and seems to be unrelated to water quality issues. It just happens sometimes - kinda like what Cichlids1 said "basically...a stroke". :? Good luck!!!

 

[aspen]

something that occasionally happens to discus is a haematoma (bruise) from hitting the glass too hard. with discus it will often heal the same way a bruise on you or i might. time will tell.

rick