Vertical Stress stripes?

[WDW Donna]

My daughter noticed these vertical stripes on her fish, Lily this morning. Not sure what they are. The water is cloudy this morning and I have some water to do a water change later today or early tomorrow.
Does anyone have any ideas?
Housing
What size is your tank? 5gal
What temperature is your tank? 78
Does your tank have a filter? yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?no
Is your tank heated?yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with?none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Aqueon betta pellets
How often do you feed your betta fish?two pellets morning two in evening

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? haven't done one yet. Only had her two weeks
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?Aqueon Betta Bowl Plus

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
not yet

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity:

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?yes, vertical stripes
How has your betta fish's behavior changed?no
When did you start noticing the symptoms?today
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?not yet
Does your fish have any history of being ill?no
How old is your fish (approximately)?Not sure, she looks young.

[Brian10962001]

Those don't look like stress stripes, they look like breeding bars. Do you have her where she can see a male fish?

[WDW Donna]

We have two males in the next room. But she can't see them.

[Brian10962001]

She looks healthy, not bloated, good color and fins. I would say somehow she's just got breeding bars. Stress stripes are horizontal and the fish will usually be pale. Is she acting strange other than the stripes?

[WDW Donna]

She is fine otherwise, eats and swims around same as always. Is this just a phase females can go through? Do we have to do anything special?
Thank you for your input.

[Brian10962001]

Yes it's just a phase so to speak. They usually see a male, or get the male hormone in the water, they do their little mating dance, bar up and "get eggy" which just means they fill up with eggs. If you don't breed her she'll absorb the eggs and go back to normal. I'm rather certain it's pretty odd for her to bar up out of the blue, but I don't believe it's anything to worry about.

[WDW Donna]

Thank you for your help. :)
Maybe it was just woman's intuition that there are two males in the next room LOL.
I just went and took a look at Lily and she is back to her normal colouring.

[Silverfang]

colouring up like that can be either what I call flirting, responding to a male, or it could be just a reaction to something in the environment. Changing colour, either striping or barring up can be ways of them communicating. Such as being submissive, or aggressive, or even afraid.

[WDW Donna]

OK. Good to know. Her water went cloudy yesterday morning as well. (still trying to find out why) maybe she was responding to that?

[Silverfang]

It's quite possible. A WC (either full or partial) is a good response. How is she doing today?