Why would a female crappie's tail be beat up?

Well, I've learned that the male crappie move in and make a nest, the females come in lay their eggs and leave while the male guards the nest. I've also seen how some identify the males by their beat up tails, so my question would be, why did this female (still had eggs in it) have such a beat up tail? You can't really tell by the pic but it was reddish as well.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-1/604697/today.gif

as the male's. She doesn't just swim in, drop eggs, and swim off. She sits on the nest fanning it prior to the egg laying as well as during and a short time afterwards. The eggs are not always deposited all at once. She may come to the nest several times.

This can be seen even more clearly sometimes with largemouth bass. I've caught several large females with distended bellies that dripped blood from their tails while I snapped a quick picture before releasing them.

Great fishing,

William

Yep, they spawn more than once.