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I have never kept bettas before two months ago when I got 4 females and a freebie male. I had nothing but problems with them at first when I tried keeping them seperated in a betta barracks type contraption that goes into a larger tank, but the females kept squeezing around the seperators into the male betta's compartment, and they'd tear each other all up. Finally, I got a lovely 5 gallon tank for the females, and I was stupid enough to put them with a pair of dwarf crays that were more aggressive than I thought they'd be and killed one fo the bettas. So I was down to three females, but I moved the crays and added some ottos (4), and everything was fine for a few weeks. Everyone's fins had grown back, and last week, two of the females started bloating up with eggs.

Now there was a pink, a blue, and a purple betta in there. The blue and purple ones had the eggs, and the pink had always been queen of the tank. The three had lived together just fine for 3-4 weeks, but I noticed a few days ago that the pink one was acting more lethargic and hiding out in back of the filter, kindof resting on the bracket near the top. Then last night, the blue one was all whited out and clearly in stress. This morning, both the pink one and the blue one were dead, but the purple one is zipping around happily showing no signs of stress, and all of the ottos are just fine. I checked water parameters, and they are just fine. I hadn't done anything drastic to the tank other than add a few plants that I'd trimmed from another tank. They didn't show any signs that anything was wrong until the night before they died. And why would two of the bettas be affected with completely different symptoms and not the third? I got them all from a breeder. They're only about 6 months old, and all spawn sisters.

Does anyone have any ideas what happened? Did I do something terribly wrong?

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

It is really hard to say what happened, but stress can cause a lot of problems with fish. Are you sure the two that were bloated up were full of eggs? It could explain their sudden deaths. They could have had a secondary infection from the torn fins that was not apparent at first. The washed out color is a sign of a possible bacterial infection. I am sorry about your loss.

I'm fairly certain that they were eggs, as the ovipositor was evident, and for the week before the blue and pink one died, the two with eggs seemed perfectly fine. Plus, only one of the ones with eggs died... the other is still doing fine. The fins had grown back very quickly with no problems within two weeks after being separated from the male for good, and they didn't nip at each other hardly at all. I was worried about fin rot or infection, so I kept an eye on them during that period. They were all eating normally and acting normally, then Poof! two of them just die.... weird.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

just some tips for next time: from my experience holding bettas together (regradless of sex) has worked out bad, and really when u think about they would be better off in bowls. b/c of numerious risks.

i haven't really found egg problems in any of my girls as they often release their eggs with me.

but it could be from a wide range of illness. try a water change b/4 anything spreads though the tank.

I keep my bettas in seperate bowls because of this problem. The females always end up going after one another or killing other fish in the tank.
How often do you do water changes in this tank? How long did it cycle before adding fish? What kind of water did you use (bottled or tap)? All of these things could be a possibility.

I do 50% water changes every two weeks. The tank has a filter rated for 15 gallons, as well as a heater set to 75F, and it's planted. I have fairly good tap water that stays about 7.4 Ph, and I use Prime to remove chlorine. The tank was well cycled before adding the female bettas, and recent water tests show nothing unusual at all. (0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 20 nitrate)
The bettas also seemed to get along fine. Any nipped fins were from the stupid fish insisting on being in the male bettas compartment, but once I moved them, it took no time at all for all fins to grow back, and they were all looking beautiful. There wasn't even any chasing or bullying, just occasional flaring, and then they'd go about thier business. They were all eating fine and acting normal right up until the day they died. The remaining betta is still doing just fine, though she hasn't dropped her eggs yet. If there were any water quality issues, I'd expect the ottos to be the first to succumb, but I havn't lost any of those, either.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

the mention of eggs is because you suspect eggbinding?

Its pretty hard to tell what is eggbinding and what is severe bloat. constipation is a bit easier to tell as the contents are dark and carried far forward, whereas eggs are carried towards the rear of the gut and are white.
Eggbinding usually has to be pretty severe to kill a fish, they can live for quite some time all chocked up like that, and mostly they just resorb the eggs, not expel them.

how swollen were the fish?

treatments for eggbinding are many and varied, but easiest is to add tannins and remove stimuli (males) or breed her.

If two are showing it, it could be a genetic fault. if you do breed, dispose of the eggs before they hatch (or after if you want, but don't breed to sell in case it is genetic)

Its quite common to have an infection display totally differently in different fish, or even in the same fish at different times. Myself, i suspect that your fish have caught something, and only the purple had any sort of immunity. Bettas are quite tricky like that

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