Floaty butt?

[Punki]

lol Sorry about the title, but my little female seems to have problems staying down, her tail end floats up, shes obviously not feeling well, she isnt zooming all over and shes a little clampy. She isnt eating off my finger like she usually does, but she is eating still, just with half as much enthusiasm =/ Shes got a little bump on her tail area but im not sure if thats normal or not. Ive included a video so you can get a better idea of whats going on hopefully. Shes just not acting like her normal hyper self.

Housing
What size is your tank? 1 gallon -1.5 gallon?
What temperature is your tank? 78-82
Does your tank have a filter? No
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? No need yet, tank water stays in the upper 70's and low 80's in the day/night here in Florida with no ac in the room her tank is in.
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Live mosquito larvae for breakfast and one Aqueon betta pellet before bed
How often do you feed your betta fish? 2 times a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Daily
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 100% everyday or at least 80% while syphoning poop if i miss a 100% day which is rare
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Tetra Aquasafe

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia:0.02 ppm
Nitrite:havent tested
Nitrate: havent tested
pH: 7.0
Hardness:havent tested
Alkalinity: havent tested
(I use bottled spring water 75% and tap 25% because my tap is orangy iron water so i dont trust it much, I let it all sit overnight treating though)

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? clamped tail a bit more often. A bump on her body before the tail fin starts, not sure if thats normal though... She arches her back to take in air more then im used to seeing, my male goes like this \ angle when getting air, she stays mostely horizontal and arches her back to put her head up. I sometimes wonder if her back is a bit eformed but im still a bit new to this, maybe my males just different cause hes a male.
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? Not so hyper swimming circles, not jumping for food, not chasing live foods as enthusiastically, sometimes just freezes and floats as if sleeping in mid swim then her butt pulls her to the top
When did you start noticing the symptoms? Today
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Nothing, just the daily water change and added a very small amount of oak tree tannins, well a few drops more then usual. She doesnt eat many pellets, im not sure if live mosquito larvae or live bloodworms could cause this.
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? No idea but id say 6 months or so? Shes from petsmart and was a bit small.
Video uploading now...

[Punki]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKK8DdhY-s8

[Sakura8]

How much mosquito larvae does she get in the morning? She looks a little bloated in the video.

Question: Do her scales stick out from her body so she looks like a pineapple?

[Punki]

She usually gets about half as much as my boy, i dont keep a good count but on average its around 9-10 if they are very small and 4-5 if they are bigger larvae. I try to average it out to the size of her eye with my net. Today i only gave her 3 small larvae and she chased them down but not as eagerly. She seems tired =/ Yesterday was her fasting day. Im not sure that shes bloated or filling with eggs, everyday the yellow insides get alittle larger and todays water change had a few whitish yellow little dots at the bottom so i thought maybe she was releasing eggs. Heres a picture of her right now for comparison to the video just in case it was the lighting..

Sorry its alittle big and dark, but shes still floating and a bit dazed not really getting excited to see me like she usually does and her back end still slowely gravitates upwards when she goes down. No pineconing so far.

[Sakura8]

I've never kept females so I don't know if she could be filling with eggs or not. Would she release them even if there was no male around? But I'm not sure why her butt would float up. My guy's backside sometimes floats up too when he pauses to look at something but it doesn't seem to be a problem for him. I wonder if she has a swimbladder issue?

[Punki]

Im pretty new to females, i took her in from my sister but i posted about eggs a few days ago and some said their girls swell around once a month and then either re-absorb eggs or release them. Maybe shes eating them on top of the live foods i feed her because after fasting for a day she shouldnt be bigger. I had accedentally sat her cup near my male during a water change for only about a minute and since then hes been bubblenest king and shes slowely got alittle more plump, but i guess shed do that regardless. Maybe eating her own eggs + live foods + eggy belly is pushing on something and making her tail end float. But shes still a bit lethargic, usually shes bolting everywhere and jumping out of the water when i come up. Now just floating and swimming alittle to look at me =/
Maybe i should fast her another day or two even though she just had her weekly fast. If she is eating her eggs. Im just not sure cause some of the eggy females ive seen look HUGE and shes not like that and never has been.

[Sakura8]

It's really possible she's eating her own eggs - fish in a lot of other species do that, like tetras and some cichlids and catfish. So it sounds like a female fish is a lot like a human female with the monthly cycle thing (I know I definitely feel bloated once a month). If you saw little yellow things in the tank, it seems likely that she's releasing her eggs and then eating them later because there's no male putting them in the bubblenest. (The females release the eggs and the male swims down, picks them up in his mouth and puts them in the bubblenest)

She might not be huge like some of the other females, but every betta's different . . . maybe she's just on the more dainty side?

At any rate, I definitely think you should fast her for another day, or even longer if that's what it takes for her to shrink down to her normal size. She's probably not very active because it must take a lot of energy to keep her butt from floating.

Have you asked any of the other female owners if their bettas' butts float when they're full of eggs?

[Punki]

No i just posted this up here and am still hoping for more input, hopefully from some female betta owners as well, but the theory of her eatting eggs does make since, I just expected her to be huge if it was a problem :)) then again her tail floats up slowely and she never tips sideways so if it is swim bladder its not a bad case as of yet. I just miss her darting all over the place all day long. I covered her tank and will fast her a couple of days. Shes very small in my eyes, but im used to my male. Thank you Sakura for your input, its helped keep me from worrying too much. :)

Any other female betta owners with this problem in the past or anyone with ideas feel free to jump in also, im worried about her :P

[Sakura8]

You're welcome Punki. I know, our bettas are like family so it's natural to worry when something seems out of whack. I hope she's back to her perky self very soon.

[Punki]

Thanks :)
Just uncovered her andstill looking the same, sitting at the top of the tank and lethargic, when swimming down her butt still slowely floats her back up. Still no major bloating but she looks alittle plump, about the same as yesterday, nothing huge. Going to fast her today for sure just in case. Still not 100% sure what this could be.