Calling all fish people
- Thread starter nedim
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lol
Just let him keep building. That is what the male betas do. However if you introduce the female to the male it still does not guarantee they will get along. I have a book somewhere on betas. I will see if I can find it and let you know the details. We had one a few years ago. He was a cutie, we named him jaws. lol
Male bettas build the nest and tend the eggs. You should be proud of yourself! Males only nest-build when they are content, healthy and in a good environment. The biggest bubble nest I ever saw was nearly 6 inches across.
And no female is necessary. The bubble nest is mainly just a sign that your fish is in prime health and happy. You could introduce a female if you want, but breeding bettas is a bit more complex than breeding other fish. You also have to prime the female to get her in "the mood", otherwise, she will fight and potentially kill the male instead of mate. There are a lot of websites that have info. I've bred bettas before, and it is very interesting if you decide to try it.
And no female is necessary. The bubble nest is mainly just a sign that your fish is in prime health and happy. You could introduce a female if you want, but breeding bettas is a bit more complex than breeding other fish. You also have to prime the female to get her in "the mood", otherwise, she will fight and potentially kill the male instead of mate. There are a lot of websites that have info. I've bred bettas before, and it is very interesting if you decide to try it.
My cousin breeds betas and I have owned a few in the past. All were male and they all built nests if I didn't have any floating plants in the bowl. Betas LOVE to hang out in amongst floating plants especially their root systems so if they have none of this shrubery to hang out in they'll build a nest for themselves, not necessarily for a female and her eggs. When changing the water I wouldn't bother trying to salvage it at all and would just do normal changing of the water. Within a couple days he'd have a new nest built with no problems. If you really want to try to salvage it, take a wide cup and carefully dip it into the water right next to the nest. Slowly scoop under the nest and bring the cup back up behind the nest. Never completely submerge the cup or you'll lose the nest! It's tricky to do and hard to explain. LOL
Oh ya once the water is changed, take the cup with the nest in it and very slowly and carefully tip the cup and ease one side into the water (don't spill or dump any!) once the two water levels are equal turn the cup horizontal and pull it back so the nest basically floats right out of the cup. Try to do this near the side of the bowl so it wil attach itself to the side and won't be floating around. Try to put it back where it was originally made. Some betas don't accept the nest back and just build a new one anyways so for simplicities sake you really dpon';t have to try to save the nest
My betta builds huge nests all the time. For breeding info/advice/tips go to www.bettatalk.com
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Hey Nedim...thanks for making this thread. You've answered a question I've been wondering about for a few months now! I have two male bettas (names are Red Fish and Blue Fish..ala Dr. Suess). Red Fish always has that bubble stuff going shortly after I change the water and I never knew what it was til now. Blue Fish doesn't do it, though. Does this mean he isn't healthy? I am very careful about the water I put in their bowls. I don't use my tap water because it has a lot of limescale in it so I buy drinking water. It seems to get scummy pretty fast, though. I only feed them once a day and not too much. As you can see, I don't know diddly about bettas. I just figured you feed them and change the water and they live til they die. Is there something else I should be doing? Oh yeah, I don't use the gravel on the bottoms of their bowls, I use those colored glass stones. Is that okay?
Jessie
Jessie