One of my female bettas has a large swollen abdomen. Another has a little swelling and the last one looks normal. Do female bettas swell up when they lay eggs or are they getting sick? I have had a ammonia problem for the past 2 weeks with a daily reading of .25 ppm. So, I have been doing daily 50 to 75% pwc's. I don't know what to do now it seems that the pwc are not helping the ammonia I thought the tank was cycled initially but when I added my 3 female bettas I realized it was not. I think basically what is happening is a fishy cycle. Is the swollen abdomen from the ammonia poisoning? Could it be some disease? Like I said before - is it eggs? HELP! I am also getting a reading of 20ppm nitrate and 0ppm nitrite. 5gallon tank with 3 bettas and a few live plants.