Not sure if its scale rot really, scale rot looks bad, scales looking dark like they are going bad. This looks like fluid under the scales, swollen kinda so its a possible burn. Do you use a UTH and is it hooked up to a thermostat to control heat?
Check the surface temp with a heat gun or something and confirm its 90f and no higher. If it is then Idk how it would be a burn. But if it reads higher (100f+) then you do have a possible burn. The area with the bad scales could have been the pressure point against the heat source.
Last edited by Borgpython; 01-10-2015 at 11:28 PM.