# Egg-bound female bettas



## Melora (Apr 6, 2007)

I started a new female betta tank; there were a butt-load of gorgeous ones at the petstores here and I couldn't help myself. They all got added at once and they sorted out the dominance in 3 days- the pecking has stopped. So all that is good. Some didn't look totally healthy when I bought them, but I knew how good they'd look if I could get them to live (I'm usually pretty decent at that.) It's been 2 weeks and I'm still worried about 2 of them. It could be dropsy- but I honestly think they're egg bound. I've never bred my betta's before, but my other females laid a lot of eggs when I had them in individual tanks, and that's what this is looking like to me. (Yup, they'd build the little bubble nests and deposit the eggs in them, with no man around or anything ;p) The thing is, these guys are in a big tank together and they're not laying... And I've personally never seen them lay unless they're really relaxed and alone (at least without other female bettas around.)

I also thought that maybe that they had just gorged themselves on pellets at the store, so I reduced/stopped their food for a few days (hikari frozen bloodworms) but that didn't make a difference. I added some salt -incase it is dropsy and incase they needed a boost anyway, they're all pretty new, I'm sure some of them had some kind of crap.

Is there anything I can do to help an egg-bound female out? I could make 2 isolation tanks, but I think that might be stressful for them right now too, since they've settled into the one they're in. If there's something else I could try, that would be nice.


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## Julie's Julies (Jun 11, 2007)

Would you happen to have a picture of your bettas? I have a female betta that's swollen on one side...I'd like to know if mine has the same thing yours do. 

I don't have much fish experience yet, especially with bettas, but there are a few things that the others are going to need to know about the tank before they can properly advise you. You'll need to post water parameters, the age and size of the tank, etc. Once you get those up, it will be much easier for them to diagnose and treat.

Happy fishkeeping!


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