Betta Fish: Help!

Hi everyone! I’m wondering if you could help me identify what’s happening with my betta, Mercury. Over the past month he’s developed some new scales around his eye and they seem to be peeling. The first picture is from a month ago, and the following are from yesterday. Normally he’s in a 7 gallon, the parameters are all normal: Ph 7.4, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrates 10 — I use the API test kit. He isn’t acting any different than usual. He’s swimming around just fine, and eating like usual.

I talked with his breeder and she’s not sure whether it’s just his dragon scaling, or if it’s something else. She suggested I put him in a hospital tank with methylene blue just to be safe. I don’t have any on hand right now; it’s hard to get where I live, so I had to order it and it’ll be here in 3 days. Until then, he’s in a 3G hospital tank with some aquarium salts, almond leaves and Seachem Stress Guard (also a gentle filter, heater and an airstone.