is this elephant ear female ready to mate??

[itsuki]

i had this elephant ear (i think its a half moon......right??) in a divided tank using wal-mart craft mesh and on the other side is my male betta. i didnt have intentions of them mating anytime soon as im not ready/informed enough to start the process and raising of the fry. after a water change i first noticed she seemed abit bigger then normal, kinda bloated/full stomach, maybe shes growing or maybe i fed her alot the last 2 days im not sure. then i noticed what i thought were vertical stripes on the front of her body, they only seem to appear on one side of her body. i was listening to a podcast about betta breeding earlier in the day so when i saw her larger (from possibly carrying eggs) and what seemed to be vertical stripes. my male betta can see a silhouette of a figure from the other side but im not sure if he knows its a female or not but regardless he doesnt seem interested in her as there are not bubblenests. another wierd thing and it maybe nothing but she tends to swim with her rear half to the body higher then the front like its lighter and wants to float up to the top of the water.

question 1: i thought it seemed she might be ready to mate, if she is ready, and im not ready to mate her with a male is there any negative effects to her from not mating and carrying eggs??

question 2: or im i just imagining things??

heres some pics, bad quality i accidently took video instead of pics so i freeze framed and captured pictures of the video :P can u see the stripes in question??

[Skyewillow]

it's not a common occurrence for females to become egg-bound (stuck with all of those eggs and can't reabsorb or lay them), so she should be fine.

We had a female who had spent the year and a half that we had her eggy, even though there were no males in sight, and she did just fine.

[itsuki]

Thats good to hear, breathes a sigh of relief

[louisvillelady]

I don't want to alarm you, but keep an eye on her. My aunt has a female betta that has dropsy. She has the bars on one side also, which is totally weird considering she is sick. She is also swimming with her rear up, because of the swelling. It is most likely she is swimming like this because she is being submissive even though the male is on the other side of the tank. Just thought I would point this out. I really an confused by my aunts haveing the bars on one side.

[Jayloo]

Bettas also release pharamones, which is like a personal scent. Although they at not be viewing each other directly they probably are swapping pharamones making them feel kinda sexy :P