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Yeah... pretty much what I've figured. I've fasted the tank (fed a meal of defrosted peas the other day, but other than that, fasted them) and she still looks huge. She did manage to get SOME of the pea, but I don't know how much.

I was actually cleaning out my betta boys' tanks yesterday and was looking at them as I cleaned.

Looking at Jezebel/beau... "Well, still don't know if you're male or female, you brat, so YOU are out of the question!"

Next in line was Equity, who somehow managed to rip off the better part of his tail one day while I was at work. "And YOU are not going to impress ANYone like that!" Not that I'd let his over-aggressive self anywhere near my baby girls, anyway!

Pursuit, a small little steel blue crowntail... "And YOU won't even be able to wrap around her, tiny thing! I swear, her BELLY is bigger than you are!"

Guess it's up to my baby, my eldest betta boy, Liberty. Despite recurring fin rot (thankfully in remission?), he's in the best shape of all of them... "Guess it's your big chance to show 'em your stuff, eh, big boy?" *pulls out the bloodworms*

His tail's in a regrowing spurt, so he's not perfect, but more impressive than Equity, at least. I've got two free ten gallons coming to me tomorrow night, so maybe I'll put the pair of them next to each other (I have a spare two gallon like the one I keep my boys in, so I can put her in there and arrange them next to each other?) tonight and see if that does anything. If not, I'll scrub out one of those tanks as soon as I get it and prepare it.

Guess I should reread the info on breeding, eh? I REALLY don't have the room for a bazillion babies, but if the mating IS successful, I wouldn't mind keeping a few.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Well, she's still not super skinny, but at least she can balance and not float to the top. I'll leave her with Pursuit for a while, as they're not killing each other. Either that, or I'll just create the ten gallon around her. Think she'd be peeved by having Baby and a trio of danios with her? Prolly.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

WONDERFUL!

just keep in mind that once it happens once (and for so long) her innards are more likelyto let it happen again, so keep an eye out

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Wheeeeeeeee! She's skinny! I don't know if Pursuit finally squeezed the stuffing out of her or she just decided to reabsorb/release the eggs, but she's got a nice trim figure now. There's no bubblenest left (scattered bubbles over the surface of the water, but no defined nest.

Right now they're still sharing the tank (I found the new, trim Clio just before leaving for work) and will remove Clio as soon as I get an additional heater, as I was using the heater from the two gallon tank I removed the male from. I needed a heater for this ten gallon, anyway. AND my fav LFS is having a sale this weekend!

I'm going to remove Pursuit to his tank, dig around for another tank for Clio to heal up in (from her spats with Liberty) and then setup this ten gallon as home to some of my stock from overstocked tanks.

Clio will return to her twenty gallon home after healing, though I am a bit worried, as she was my alpha female... I hope she won't have to fight her way back into the community.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Yeah, I left Pursuit and Clio together overnight, released her right after dinner and just left them together. They're still together now... I'm just hoping I come home to a bunch of eggs (well, not really, as I have no where to RAISE a bunch of bettas!) and not a dead fish.

On the other hand, I'm afraid Clio's going to die if she doesn't release these eggs... She can't maneuver very well and even when I didn't have her in with a male, she didn't want to eat. She's gone a week without food. I don't want to lose one of my girls, especially Clio, who's one of my original betta girls.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Well kitten that really does stink... It does take time to breed though. Its not good to interrupt them once they are released, but I completely understand separating her from the clueless male. Hope this workd for you!

Okay, I don't know what to do. I tried Liberty... dropped him in a ten gallon tank (about four gallons of water in there), put Clio in a large betta cup in there, so that they could see each other. They danced, he bubble nested, then when I released them a couple days later, all he did was bite her. HARD. I mean, to the point where I thought she'd be letting the eggs out through a hole in her side. ]:| I tried him a few times (I didn't want to leave him alone with her, so I'd put her back in her cup when I had to leave), but he just kept biting her.

I took him out and repeated the same procedure with Pursuit. He danced for her, she danced as well as she could for him... At least he's not trying to rip her scales off like Liberty did. I just don't know what to do, though... SHE seems willing and knows what to do, I think, but the guys are clueless. I can see leaving her in the tank with Pursuit, though... he doesn't seem like he's going to kill her any second, at least.

At this point, I'm about ready to advertise for male bettas with experience in the personal ads! WANTED: Male betta with experience in wrapping a female... no color preference, just someone who knows how to get the job done!

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Some pictures...

A look at the setup and her belly and them dancing.


Dance, dance!


Her belly is so big it makes it easy for her to play dead...


Kind of a sucky picture, but they do look pretty together, don't they? Liberty actually doesn't have that grassy green color... he's more aqua than true green, though Clio does have green in her.


My digicam still hates taking aquarium pictures, sorry for the glares and everything. [/font][/font][/font][/font]

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Ack... not gentle... I don't think he knows what he's doing... He danced for her, she attempted to dance for him (like trying to dance when you're nine months pregnant) and... he bit her! Repeatedly. *peers at the dangling scales on her poor lil girl*

I set her up in his tank for a couple days, in a large, clear plastic betta cup with a lid. (I don't have an extra heater, so this was the best way I could think of to have them together and not freeze her to death.) I stood the little terracotta pot upright so that Clio (the betta girl) in her cup balanced on top of it. This way, the water level in both tank and cup are even, and there's air exchange for her.

They flared and danced for two days. When I released her, he attacked. She played dead. He went to work on his bubblenest. She moved to breathe from the surface (her belly is so big, it must be pressing on her swim bladder... she floats half on her side). He attacked. No signs on embrace, even though she ventured over to him a few times. Okay, so she _waddled_ over to him a few times. She even got her big belly over under the bubblenest for him. I think she has an idea of what to do, but he doesn't.

This is when I wish my Justice (the jumper) was still alive... he was THE most gentle betta I've ever seen. *sigh* Liberty can be a bit more aggressive.

Granted, it's not a big tank... just a two gallon kritter keeper 3/4 filled with water. I've got a pair of ten gallons sitting in my trunk at the moment, so I'm going to go grab those and see if I can set one up for the pair. Maybe because it's HIS tank, he feels like she's an intruder?

Last edited by Kitten at 31-Dec-2004 09:57

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Liberty should be a gentleman too at his age, nice and gentle with her when embracing

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Good luck Kitten. Please let us know how things turn out. I hope she will be ok. It is very hard not to get attached to bettas, they have such distinct personalities.

Okay, I admit that my girls are probably a bit on the chubby side, but this girl... wow. She's huge. The weird thing is that she was "normal" the day before yesterday and then last night, I saw her... oi, she's HUGE. Not like, fat huge, but eggbound huge? Her tummy is so big that she's overly-bouyant and can't seem to sink properly. She uses plant cover to hold herself down away from the surface of the tank.

It's not swim bladder disorder, I've seen that in bettas before. And there's no way she ate THAT much food overnight. I've been putting them on a diet (which has worked out pretty well), so there's no reason she should be THIS huge. Either she's constipated or eggbound. I think I'm going for the later. She's almost scary huge.

Help, please, I don't know what to do. I'm tempted to move her near or into a tank with one of my males (in a cup or something, so they can't destroy each other) in the hopes that she might expel the eggs, if that is, indeed what's wrong. I mean, I've seen my girls with eggs before, but they've either been absorbed or expelled quickly. And none of them has ever been HALF as huge as this one.

I just can't believe this has happened pretty much overnight. I'll get pictures as soon as I can.

Help! I don't want to lose one of my baby girls!

Last edited by Kitten at 07-Jan-2005 11:35

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

And another angle of her.

This fish (belonging to Fishchick1/Aussiebettas) eventually died.

Kitten, breeding is certainly worth a shot. Failing that, about the only thing you could do is fast her and hope she resorbs the eggs.

Callatya attached this image:


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Its not ich, looks like it, but its just air bubbles. And she is a REAL piggie, very stretchy stomach and a big appetite, i have to watch her like a hawk or she gets all bloaty

This is the best photograph i have of an extremely eggbound female, Mira. Her spawn had a genetic deformity, and several people lost fish due to extreme eggbinding.

Agaiin, this is not the fish in question.

Callatya attached this image:


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Uh... if you didn't notice, that's not the fish in question. And that's being eggbound, not overfed... Okay... well, as was mentioned, a large meal of bloodworms was fed to that particular betta, but that's mostly her holding eggs.

As for MY bettas, they are on diet because they're lil piggies. However, they're nowhere near that fat, except the one.

They all went nuts for the frozen, defrosted peas, but that doesn't seem to have helped the eggbound girl. I'm going to see if put her near a guy will induce the release of eggs. If not, I'll try breeding her outright, I guess. *pulls out the frozen bloodworms and stares at her betta boys, trying to figure out which will be the lucky guy*

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Please cut back on feeding!
Another thing is I seem to see her having ick on the top down view.
If that's the case, you may want to treat her early.

Okay... I'll just feed the normal flake food and may try some peas, if I can get her to eat that. Dunno if that will help, but it's worth a try, right? Even if SHE won't eat it, I'm sure the otto and cories will enjoy it.

On the upside of things, she does look marginally better today. Maybe she was able to expel some eggs overnight?

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Kitten, also hold back on high protien foods, if you can clear the front section out, the eggs should have more room to move.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Yeeks... yeah, that's pretty much what she looks like. o.O

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

HOLY COW Calla!

Kinda makes you wanna grab her and giver her a squeeze.

I agree that tannis work...Hence Indian Almond Leaves being so popular.

Females will slowly drop the eggs if they do not mate.