# Female laying eggs and eating them repeatedly - bloated and lethargic.



## tripodeca (Sep 26, 2019)

Purchased a new girl a week and a half ago. Moved her to a 2.5 with substrate/driftwood from an established tank. Three days ago she laid what must have been an enormous amount of eggs while I was at work and was tending to them in a bubble nest. I scooped out as many as I could find, she had already eaten more than a few as she was a little bloated already. The next day she did the same things again and was even more bloated. Again I removed the eggs. I just got back from work and she has once again laid eggs in a nest- this time the nest is much smaller but she is far more bloated and is much more lethargic then yesterday/day before. Not swimming unless prompted, mostly sitting on the heater. 

Will she stop on her own? Is there anything I can change in her environment that might help? The tank is rather bare right now, it's temporary until I can finish setting up the big tank. 

*Housing:*
How many gallons is your tank? 2.5
Does it have a filter? No
Does it have a heater? Yes
What temperature is your tank? 79-81F
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Does your Betta have tank mates? What kind? No

*Food:*
What food brand do you use? Hikari (sinking carnivore pellets)
Do you feed flakes or pellets? Pellets
Freeze-dried? No
How often do you feed your Betta? How much? Daily half a pellet crumbled

*Maintenance:
Before* your Betta became ill how often did you perform a water change? 1-2x week 
What percentage of water did you change? 50%
What is the source of your water? Well water
Do you vacuum the substrate or just dip out water? Light vacuum
What additives do you use? What brand of conditioner? None

*Water Parameters: *
What are your water parameters? Please give exact numbers. If tested by pet store please get exact numbers. "Fine" or "Safe" won't help us help you. Important: Test your water _before_ the regular water change; not after one.

Ammonia: -
Nitrite: -
Nitrate: -
pH: 7.4
Hardness (GH):
Alkalinity (KH):

Everything is reading near 0 but I just realized my test kit is three months out of date DX

*Symptoms and Treatment:*
When did you first notice the symptoms? 3 days ago
How has your Betta’s appearance changed? Bloated
How has your Betta’s behavior changed? Lethargic
Is your Betta still eating? No (yes? Seems to be eating- eggs, refuses food)
Have you started treating your Betta? If so, how? No
Does your Betta have any history of being ill? Unknown
How long have you owned your Betta? 1.5 weeks
Was he or she ill or suffering some sort of damage when purchased? Minor ammonia burns around gills seemed otherwise fine, however all the other girls from her shipment were dead/dying. 

First pic is day one before I removed the eggs( (this is about a third of them, a little under half of what i found day 2) 









Second pic is just now, the little black bump above the heater is the small batch of eggs. (removed after pic)


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## Mbpoppy (Nov 3, 2019)

Hi!
Some thoughts that I have about what you've posted, --if you can see a small white dot behind the ventral fins, that is the ovipositor, and your betta is a very rare case of a female who makes bubble nests. Otherwise it seems to me that you have a male Plakat.

Maybe @DaZuk could provide thoughts regarding your well water.

Is your fish pooping? Try skipping feeding for a day or two.

I'm also wondering why you are using pellets that sink? My boys rarely chase sinking food and won't eat off the tank bottom (although I know there are bettas that will  ). Try New Life Spectrum Small pellets that float, or Bug Bites -they have flakes, or miniscule "pellets" which are more like dust really, a food ring can help with this (a shower curtain ring works great).

Both these brands are high quality foods, just follow the feeding directions on the container.

I give my boys a freeze dried bloodworm now and then which helps provide additional nutrients.


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## tripodeca (Sep 26, 2019)

Well, given all the eggs I do have solid confirmation that she's female despite her nesting habits 

Poop is fine/more than usual which doesn't surprise me too much which how much "food" she's been eating. (these pellets are the best I've found locally and I have to repurchase often with how quickly things mold in the extreme humidity here. They do float for a few seconds when you break them up and everyone, [including this girl prior to the egg eating] never fails to eat even if they do sink) 

I don't _think _the water or food is the issue, there's three others living with the same setup (including another female) who don't seem to have an issue. 

She's much better today bloating/behavior wise, but is currently back to building a nest after I literally just removed the one she built last night. She's also looking like she's got a lot of eggs in there again and I suspect I'll find them in a nest/eaten by the time I get home from work.

Right now I'm more worried about the repeated egg laying exhausting her and affecting her health.


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## tripodeca (Sep 26, 2019)

Small update, I was right about her doing it again. More eggs _and _a very fat betta when I got home from work.

I did read that a female that has been exposed to a male betta is more likely to lay eggs. While she hasn't been anywhere near a male the tank was previously inhabited by a male- everything was disinfected and left to dry for a few months but perhaps there's something hormone-related going on? Planning to buy her a fresh tank when they have them back in stock. In the mean time I'll do a teardown/disinfecting tomorrow with a 100% water change and see if that makes a difference.

photo update- fatter than yesterday but only a little worse than day 2.









Edit: Also dropped the temperature to about 75, a little low but I'm hoping the cold will be discouraging


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## Mbpoppy (Nov 3, 2019)

That's a good photo. It doesn't have any vertical stripes at all, usually the sign of a fertile female, and I don't see the ovipositor but a fin may be blocking my view.

It is still pooping fine, no swim bladder issues?


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## tripodeca (Sep 26, 2019)

(More eggs this morning~!)

So, just to clear up any confusion, this is a female betta, here is a pic with her ovipositor(red) and ovaries/eggs(yellow) visible. She's a marble type and doesn't have enough pigment on her body to show stripes. She's the only creature in the tank, no snails or shrimp, so even if I didn't know what betta eggs look like, there's literally nothing else that could have laid them. 










I'm less worried about any bloating that's happening because she seems to be clearing everything just fine despite the massive amounts she's eating. 

What I _am_ worried about at this point is why she's doing this and how to get her to stop. I don't think the literal daily egg laying is good for her and she's not eating enough food because she's constantly full from eating eggs. Which means a net loss nutrition wise. So! If anyone has any weird ideas let me know cause this seems to be a bit of an unusual problem!

Things that have been tried:

Lowering temp (as of yesterday)
Rearranging decor
removing all eggs and bubble nest
leaving in all eggs and bubble nest (...not exactly intentional)

Right now I'm tearing down her tank, washing everything and doing a 100% water change, including brand new decor and no substrate. (will be purchasing more asap) Lets see if it helps!


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## tripodeca (Sep 26, 2019)

So, just an update to close out the thread- 'cause I hate finding incomplete threads when I'm trying to research a problem XD

Disinfecting/rewashing didn't help, replacing the tank/decor/substrate with all new didn't help. What did finally get her to stop was adding a fair amount of current. I had added a filter but had it baffled like I do for the rest of my betta. Removing the baffle (I guess) adds enough water movement that she doesn't really have the opportunity to build nests- which seems to have quashed her egg-laying habits for now. Temp is back up to 78 and she's gaining back weight fairly well, no other issues at all!


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## Mbpoppy (Nov 3, 2019)

Thanks for the update!


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