Female Egg Problems

[Crownvail]

We have a female betta community tank and all the females get along and play together. The other day we found one of the females dead and noticed that her belly had a hole. It seemed that the other female bettas ate her eggs. She wasn't the only female in the tank that had eggs, some of them did and a few didn't. Since then, we have taken out and put separate the females with eggs. Help, any reply is greatly appreciated.

[Oldfishlady]

Once mature, females have unripe eggs all their life and will either drop and eat them or not or reabsorb them on a regular basis normally.....Also, its not uncommon for their fecal matter to look somewhat creamy/white in appearance for several days after they eat or reabsorb their eggs-not to be confused with internal parasites and treated needlessly......

It is a normal response for fish to eat dead fish-usually they start at the eyes and soft belly area-
Fish once they die will decomp really fast and not uncommon to appear swollen with bits and pieces of their body parts missing-especially internal organs, eyes...etc.... from either other fish eating/picking at them or the natural bacteria, organism, nematodes...etc....that naturally/normally inhabit your tank for cleanup of dead, dieing, decomposing organic items...its all natural and expected and doesn't always mean you have a problem-unless it is related to water quality issue due to neglected water or poor substrate, filter cleaning/maintenance.....