Scale Discolouration And Red Gills

[Flute]

Hey guys, sorry to be a pain, but I'm kinda worried about a few of my female bettas and would be really grateful for any ideas. I came home from uni for a few days to find that most of the girls have red gills, and 3 had discoloured patches of scales. The scales have gone back to normal on 2 of them, but my weakest girl, Niamh, is still looking under the weather although she's acting normal.

Tank size: 207 ltr/54 gallons
pH: 6.4
ammonia: 0 ppm
nitrite: 0 ppm
nitrate: 5.0 ppm
tank temp: 25 C

Volume and Frequency of water changes: Weekly 20-30%

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Tap water conditioner only

Tank inhabitants: 9 female betta, 1 pearl gourami and a pair of Laetacara araguaiae.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): Laetacara araguaiae were added on the 4th of September.

Exposure to chemicals: None.

Digital photo:

Sorry for the bad pic, it was all I could get as she wouldn't stay still. You can just about see the redness around her gills, but not the discoloured scales. You can see how blue in colouring she is, well there is a small patch of scales that have gone a bronze colour. 2 of the other girls also had them, but they've faded and are now back to normal colourations. Could this be from bickering?

I've already posted about this once fish in particular just to make sure she's ok- she eats well, is very active, but is tiny and an odd shape. Her tail has been like that since I got her. I was told, and agree with, that she's probably always going to be like that and was probably "the runt of the spawn".

The red gills are what is concerning me more though- nearly all of my female betta, bar one or two, have it. It's not effecting any other fish in my tank, which are a pearl gourami and a pair of Laetacara araguaiae. It doesn't seem to be bothering the betta at all- they don't flick or rub on things, and are still eating like pigs. My bf does a 30% weekly water change and gravel vac whilst I'm away, and as my results show it's not ammonia or nitrite.

I lost a guppy today who was showing no symptoms at all I was watching her happily zip around the tank yesterday and today I found her dead on the substrate. I'm about to do a bigish water change just in case, but I don't think it's related to what the girls are suffering from. The guppy was a rescue case and was severally inbred, and was probably about a year and a half old. The only thing I can think of is that she ate too much and died of bloat over night?

I go back to uni either tomorrow or Thursday, so I wanted to figure out what this is, but as I have no idea, I thought I'd ask you guys on here

Thanks for any ideas guys!

 

[KittyKat]

She looks beaten up. Do you know the water readings for the last few weeks? Red gills are usually ammonia related, I think.

 

[WILDER]

Do any of your fish look skinny.
What does it look like when your fish go to the toilet.
Any worms prutruding from the anus.
Any fish showing signs of sunken in bellys.
Any excess mucas on body or gills.
Any white edging to gills, or white marks, or spots.
Do the gills look like there bleeding.
Any signs of darting, erratic swimming.
Do the fish swim in a jerky movement.
Turn tanks lights out and shine a torch on the fish for yellow spots, gold dusting, rusty coloured varnish.
Any fluffy cotton wool on the brown areas of the fish.
Any signs of laboured breathing, or gasping.

 

[Flute]

Kitty Kat: She's always looked like that Nothing I do seems to improve her condition. I asked over on the betta section and as I said, they think she might be just malformed. I check my ammonia levels often, especially if something doesn't look right, and they've been fine since setting the tank up (I used mature filter media and water so the tank didn't have to cycle). Ammonia was the first thing that came to my mind, but I can't see how if there isn't any

Do any of your fish look skinny: Only Niamh (pictured). All other fish are the right body shape and size.
What does it look like when your fish go to the toilet: Normal
Any worms prutruding from the anus: No
Any fish showing signs of sunken in bellys: Not on any other fish, not sure if Niamh's is suken (please see picture).
Any excess mucas on body or gills: No
Any white edging to gills, or white marks, or spots: No white edging, only red.
Do the gills look like there bleeding: No, they do look sore, although they don't seem to be bothering the fish. They're not gasping, or rubbing against things or anything.
Any signs of darting, erratic swimming: None at all
Do the fish swim in a jerky movement: No
Turn tanks lights out and shine a torch on the fish for yellow spots, gold dusting, rusty coloured varnish: Just checked, nope.
Any fluffy cotton wool on the brown areas of the fish: None. It's healed on the other two, and has faded slightly on Niamh.

I really appreciate the help guys
I'm fed up of the trouble I'm having with this tank D: I recently lost all my peppered corys to a bacterial infection (Wilder, you helped me with that situation too, thank you), the other 4 corys have completely healed.

 

[KittyKat]

I was asking about maintenance because maybe there was high ammonia last week, or the week before, while you were away?

 

[WILDER]

The betta looks abit thin to me in the pic.
Just keep a close eye on her when she goes to the toilet.

Being skinny can be old age, fish tb, internal parasites, not feeding enough, external parasites.

Dosn't sound like a parasite just yet, or bad water quality.
I would add a bacterial med to the tank.

Red gills can be due to bad water quality, parasites, bacterial gill rot.

 

[Flute]

Kitty: My boyfriend keeps the water changes up for me when I'm away (he does them every week for me), so it shouldn't be that

Wilder: I'll try and keep an eye out for that. It's not old age as she was only about 4 months old when I bought her which was back in July. The deal on ebay was for 4 female betta, and I wanted a couple more, so the seller sold me two more for cheap. I can only think that she chose Niamh and another sickly betta (I lost her quite soon after receiving them) so she wouldn't loose her healthier females for cheaper (I'm not saying that for definite, but it might be an idea). At the amount that Niamh eats she shouldn't be that skinny, and she doesn't spit food out. They're fed every day, with a treat (bloodworm, daphnia, etc.) once a week, followed the next day by peas, and then nothing for the next day, and then flake the next, etc.
Don't think it's fish tb as they're not showing any other symptoms (thank God )

I was worried also that it might be gill rot, but I've had a quick look online at the symptoms, none of which my girls are showing.
So confusing D: And annoying as I really need to get a plec in there for the algae, but I'm not willing to risk the health of another animal until I have this sorted.

EDIT: In case this helps, 6 out of 9 girls have the red gills. It's definitely not effecting my pearl gourami or my Laetacara

 

[WILDER]

She could have a bacterial infection, or internal parasites, if she skinny and her belly sunken in.
If her poo normal I would take the bacterial route for now.

 

[Flute]

Just looked at her again, and I wouldn't say her stomach is sunken in- in fact she actually has quite a little podge at the moment from the bloodworms I fed them last night

Is it safe to treat with bacterial meds after dosing the tank several times a couple of weeks ago? I'm trying to remember if I've noticed the red gills before now or not, and I think I remember my bf asking if they had red gills when I was treating the corys. I was so intent on trying to keep the corys alive at the time that I may have missed it, for which I now feel awful
What I'm saying is, if they had the red gills then, and the tank was treated with bacterial meds, wouldn't that have cleared it up then?

After searching google, it came up with a thread from a different forum, who had the exact same thing. Water quality is fine, etc. They added Melafix and Pimafix and after a few days the redness was gone. Worth a try do you think?

 

[WILDER]

it depends on which med you use for bacterial infections.
What was the med called?