Lfs Headaches

[Ltygress]

I get frustrated enough seeing betta fish sold in tiny cups in Walmart and Petsmart. Now everyone is doing it. The problem is, they are also doing that with females, and leaving the cups right beside each other!

I just picked up two females that are ready to pop! Any betta fish hobbyist would notice they are "pregnant" and ready to drop eggs, and not just "fat" from excess food.

So yes, I caved and bought them. I know, I know, I'm supporting the enemy! But it wasn't a chain like Petsmart and it SEEMS like the staff listened to my suggestion.

I had to pick up another male to help alleviate the swollen bellies ASAP. Thankfully the new plain-fin male has a beautiful aqua-marine color shared by a crowntail female.

The normal fin female is also unique in that she's black! I've seen breeders with black bettas, but this is the first I have seen in a LFS. I'm going to pair her with my red, white, and blue crowntail male.

I was not quite ready to breed bettas again, and the first batch of fry will probably not survive for either pair. But at least the girls will get rid of those eggs in their bellies, and happily go into bigger community tanks with NO MALES once they are done.

 

[Far_King]

Is there any animal protection organisation that can be contact in regards to this?  They wouldn't be allowed to keep a rabbit in a lunchbox and this is no different.
 
I know my LFS has stopped keeping them in close proximity to each other at all.  It makes them a lot harder to find if you want one but the fish are definitely in a "betta" environment.

 

[Ltygress]

Not for pet fish in this state. Only for food fish spreading diseases.

The aqua-marine female actually has a white spot (the size of a betta egg) showing on her abdomen. And 24 hours without food has not caused her swollen belly to go down much, so I'm pretty certain she's carrying eggs.

But the male she's with is not participating very well. He comes to her flaring, and she drops her head into a breeding stance, but he just ignores it. He also hasn't put up a single bubble. I know he's plenty old enough. If he would just get on the ball here.

Or fish, rather...

 

[Baccus]

Is the male nicely conditioned with plenty of high stakes food like mosquito wrigglers, tubifex worms and the like?
One of my male fighters liked to build his nest under a large artificial leaf I secured near the top of the tank, he also liked sleeping on top of the part of the leaf that dipped under the water.
Him and his leaf

 

[Ltygress]

Yes and no. He's the one I had to buy to help these ladies out. I feed him bloodworms and tubifex worms, and all of my fish get free house fly guts and eggs as I kill them with a swatter and squish them with a clothes pin at the surface of the water.

NEVER seen a freaking GUPPY fight for food until I did that...

Anyway, prior to getting him yesterday, he was probably just given a general flake food. So he hasn't had much time on the good stuff. But I was hoping he'd work out and help this girl release those eggs!

 

[Far_King]

Maybe he's bunged up on the flake food.  Give him a few peas to help his digestion.  No one wants to be on the job on a full stomach

 

[Ltygress]

Well good news, I just woke up to bubbles! He's finally building the nest, so things are looking up!

 

[Wildbetta]

I get frustrated enough seeing betta fish sold in tiny cups in Walmart and Petsmart. Now everyone is doing it. The problem is, they are also doing that with females, and leaving the cups right beside each other!

I just picked up two females that are ready to pop! Any betta fish hobbyist would notice they are "pregnant" and ready to drop eggs, and not just "fat" from excess food.

So yes, I caved and bought them. I know, I know, I'm supporting the enemy! But it wasn't a chain like Petsmart and it SEEMS like the staff listened to my suggestion.

I had to pick up another male to help alleviate the swollen bellies ASAP. Thankfully the new plain-fin male has a beautiful aqua-marine color shared by a crowntail female.

The normal fin female is also unique in that she's black! I've seen breeders with black bettas, but this is the first I have seen in a LFS. I'm going to pair her with my red, white, and blue crowntail male.

I was not quite ready to breed bettas again, and the first batch of fry will probably not survive for either pair. But at least the girls will get rid of those eggs in their bellies, and happily go into bigger community tanks with NO MALES once they are done.

 
There was no reason to spawn these females.  There are other ways to alleviate egg bound females besides putting them with a male.  There is no guarantee that putting them in with a male will help either especially if the pair decides not to spawn or takes too long to do so.   
 
Just FYI to anyone who might be reading the thread who might somehow end up with a female heavy with eggs but doesn't want to breed.

 

[Ltygress]

All of the other solutions I have read about have never worked for me previously. Leaving them in a cup in a male tank has never worked for me. Putting a mirror in front of them has never worked for me. I used to breed bettas before (just not recently, and wasn't quite prepared for it again).

But as I type this, papa is now proudly guarding lots of eggs. She looks thinner, and is happily searching substrate for food in a community tank. Plus, someone came through locally at the last minute with fry food, so I'm good to go.

 

[NickAu]

 
There are other ways to alleviate egg bound females besides putting them with a male.

Could you please tell me how? I have a female and it would be useful to know.

 

[Wildbetta]

 

 
There are other ways to alleviate egg bound females besides putting them with a male.

Could you please tell me how? I have a female and it would be useful to know.
 

 
The majority of female bettas will not have issues with being egg bound.  They will get really eggy but it is more rare to have one that actually gets egg bound.  There are things you can do to keep this from happening though.  If your female starts to get really eggy looking -- fast her for a couple of days to encourage her to absorb them (which normally is all you have to do).  Raising the temperature and doing flare training can help with this as well.  It is not advised to put them in the view of a male which could actually make the situation worse.  
 
While most females will absorb or release/eat their eggs before becoming egg bound, there are the special cases where this does happen.  There are ways to help the female express the eggs at this point but it is preferred to try and not let the female get to this point.

 

[NickAu]

Thank you.

 

[Ltygress]

By the way, someone will probably get upset that I'm mentioning this, but the reason I don't mind spawning fat females is because I use the fry to feed other fish.

Yes, I said that. Bettas as food.

But then most of my first-time daddy bettas don't get it right either. Mr. Slowster sleeps behind the heater at night, instead of watching for falling eggs or fry. He's lost all but about 5 eggs and fry to the glass bottom. I'm watching two zip in circles on the glass now as he checks out the airstone that isn't on. But maybe the five still hanging up in the bubble mass will make it.

 

[NickAu]

That's nature, Baby fish get eaten, I have 2 firemouths in my Live bearer tank as population control.