Poor Quality Females

[372xp]

Something which has been bothering me for quite a while is the poor quality of female bettas available in the lfs's. I am not talking about the variety, although thats not great, its the poor physical condition. Most are young juveniles who normally dont make it past a fortnight. They seem to come home with fungal infections and parasites.
The reason I write this is I am watching another one waste away, I will be suprised if she is still alive tommorow. Try as I might only 20% of mine will reach adulthood. Everything is right in their tank ,they eat well and have plenty of space and hiding places. So what is going on?
In the past I have not kept any I have bred so as to avoid in-breeding(I only have one male), so I dont knowhow they fared. Personally I have run out of reasons for there ill health and have beat myself up enough about it.
So is this a problem every where? Or just round here?

 

[Wildbetta]

I see alot of very poor looking females in my area as well.  The one time I had a sorority that had store bought females in it, I was constantly battling something with them and tended to have a much higher turnover rate than what is needed.  When I had my big sorority up with actual females from breeders, I did not have anywhere near the issues and really only had 3 females out of 17 that actually had issues. One had to be rehomed because she could not handle sorority life -- constantly beat up and stressed and then two had an illness but overall much healthier.