# Female betta died a few days after spawning



## Korena ShardÃ© (Dec 13, 2019)

I had a successful spawn, and after removing the female, I had her in a little quarantine tank to medicate some wounds. She still seemed large after spawning, but was acting normal and eating at first. Then today I started thinking it’s dropsy, and sure enough, she died. This happened to my female the last time I tried to need my bettas. Any idea what is going on? I took a look at her belly outside of the water after she passed away. All of these pictures are after she died.






I want to make sure this doesn’t happen again, as this is the second time this has happened. Any advice helps!


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## Old Dog 59 (Nov 11, 2018)

Did you breed her to the same male? If yes then it could be he is inflecting internal injuries while in the breeding process or right after.


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

Was the belly like that before spawning?
If yes, it looks like effects of over feeding - similar to dropsy but without pine coning. Not sure which internal organ is damaged though. And once they become like that, they will eventually die.

Reduce a great deal of your feeding - just until belly becomes plump. Only growing fry can eat until belly becomes round. But older bettas (3 cm or more) often becomes problematic if constantly over fed. 

Though rare, it could also be caused by parasites. Whatever caused it, IME, once belly become round like that, it's only a matter of time. . . .


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## Korena ShardÃ© (Dec 13, 2019)

This is a new female and a new male. My last pair died. During the last Attempted spawn, the female didn’t Release any eggs during the many embraces that they had, so I removed her after a few days because she was looking rough. She was bloated, similar, but even larger, to the real girl in the pictures is my post. 
The current real girl who just died, she was fat before spawning since she was full of eggs, but she was not this large. After she spawned, she still had a very visible egg spot, I thought maybe that she didn’t get all of her eggs out, but the male was done with her regardless. She had very minor injuries. I did feed her blood worms after all of her hard work. Perhaps I did over feed her. I didn’t think over feeding could lead to sudden death tho. Does it look like dropsy? It was very hard to tell if she was pineconing or if she had some sort of film on her scales.


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## indjo (Jun 6, 2010)

All females have egg spots. Never took notice whether or not they are more noticeable when they want to breed. Whether fat or thin, females always carry eggs and will breed.

Well conditioned fat females often have difficulty releasing eggs. And in many cases males may have difficulty embracing them properly. But once enough eggs have been released, the rest comes pouring (so to speak).

. . . . . . . . . . .

Apparently (I read somewhere - forgot), being fat and or over eating will push against internal organs and block passages (sorry, can't think of better term). It may come to a point where the fish will be unable to release wastes and will bloat, as well as damage internal organs. Once this happens, you can't save the fish. Fasting will not fix the problem. All this takes months.

In your case, I doubt a few days of over feeding was the cause of death. It must have been caused by some sort of parasite or during the breeding process, the male might have attacked females mid section and internally injured her. 

- I have had females bloat, some die the day after bloating was apparent. But the process of becoming bloated takes weeks to months. 
- I have had females die the following day after attacked a few times at the lower part of mid section (female removed 20-30 minutes or so after released). Now, I avoid floating resting areas when breeding.
- But I have never had sudden bloating that led to death in a few days.


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