Female betta swollen abdomen help!

[pilger@insightb]

Do they swim and act normal if it is eggs. She comes up to eat in the morning and swims normally. However if no one is bothering her she seems to want to rest on the bottom or in the plants. I know when I was that bloated before I gave birth I wanted to rest as well but I am just trying to be sure its eggs and not illness.

 

[Jahosacat]

Thanks for posting the links to the pictures! I've been wondering about 1 of my females and the pictures helped a lot!

 

[Kyohti]

The females will only begin developing eggs once they are mature enough, and like I said it comes and goes in stages. The other females sound like they are in the beginning and middle stages of maturation and egg-development. I wouldn't worry about it. The 'egg spot' or ovipositor is nothing to be worried about. It's as natural on them as our own physical signs are when we hit sexual maturity.

It's normal for bettas to rest in plants or on the gravel from time to time. They are a slow-moving species. As long as she is eating and behaving normally and not out-of-sync with her normal behavior, she is fine. Dropsy is a terrible illness and caused the fish very obvious distress. They usually won't eat while they are puffed up with dropsy.

If she seems a little slow, it might be her big belly or she may actually be suffering a little bloat. Try having your bettas fast and not eat for a day or two after offering them the shelled peas. It'll give the fiber in the peas a chance to clean out their little digestive tracts and get them all happy and regular again.

Never hurts to err on the side of caution in case it is bloat, right? ^__^

 

[Kyohti]

Thanks for posting the links to the pictures! I've been wondering about 1 of my females and the pictures helped a lot!

Quite welcome. ^__^

 

[pilger@insightb]

I fed them a few shelled peas yesterday and the one with the huge belly does look a little smaller. There is no way for me to be sure it was constipation or if she is gravid and has either released or reabsorbed some eggs,however, if it was dropsy she wouldn't be getting smaller right? I am keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[Vanessam6]

Actually, female bettas do tend to have a very swollen belly area if they are 'gravid'... or full of eggs. Here's some photo references to help you.

Normal female betta:http://z.about.com/d/freshaquarium/1/0/R/S/betta04G.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...ta_closeup.jpg/800px-Female_betta_closeup.jpg
Note that there is no swell to their bellies, but it's not sunken in from starvation, either. A average and healthy look for a young female or a female too old to produce eggs.

Well-fed female betta: http://z.about.com/d/freshaquarium/1/0/S/S/betta05G.jpg
http://www.bettatalk.com/images/F_opaque_female.gif
These girls are well-fed and are either being conditioned through good feeding to produce eggs or were photographed just after a heavy meal. See the slight belly-swell?

Gravid female betta: http://www.bettatalk.com/images/too_much_food.gif
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/MiscFishPIX/betta1.jpg
http://www.petfish.net/articles/pics/betta_egg_tube.jpg <== Upper Right
These females are bursting at the seams with eggs. This is normal for the first couple of years in a female betta's life. If she hasn't bred within 2 years, she usually stops producing these big round bellyfuls of eggs and is no longer suitable to breed because she will no longer desire to. Females don't need to breed to be 'relieved' of their bellies. They will reabsorb the eggs as they become too old to fertilize, so she will go through fat and thinner phases as she does this.

Female betta with dropsy:http://www.nippyfish.net/flashdropsy.jpg
http://www.bettatalk.com/images/dropsy_copy.gif
http://www.waynesthisandthat.com/images/dropsy2.jpg
http://www.aquariumcorner.com/images/dropsy pic2-photo contributed by Tom Byrne.JPG
The last image was a male betta, but you can see how easy it is from the previous photos to confuse a gravid or full-bellied female with a sickly, bloated, or possibly dropsied female. The best clue is to look at them from a top-side view. In the 'dropsy pics' before the last two, you could clearly see the scales standing up when seen from above. If the female is merely full of food, fat, or eggs she will have normal, smooth-scaled sides.

Hope this helps!!

So I got my female betta yesterday and she has a swollen belly that looks like the gravid pictures but i'm confused if it's gravid or bloated bc she's not pineconed, this is how she looks

 

[Rbishop]

Can you copy this post over into a new thread? It might draw more attention.