Betta Bubbles

[Trollfest]

Had my male betta in his own tank for a couple of weeks now and noticed the last couple of days he's started making bubbles. Read a variety of opinions as to why they does this but I'm interested to know what other people believe - does it mean they're happy or is it just down to plain instinct?

 

[aly_starh]

hehehe.


Im guessing its a bubble nest. That means your bettas is extremely happy (and also capable of making a nest if you were to breed him)

 

[Trollfest]

I'd like to think it was cause he is really happy too but I keep getting told off by my bf "they're not people!"

 

[Haych]

mine are still sulking, so they havent done any. hunter did though and hes in a community tank!

 

[StrontiumDog]

I would say it's is just plain instinct.

My old Betta never made a bubble nest in over a year, infact all the time I had him, until he was put next to a female then he blew bubbles for England. Now this Betta was never ill, grew into one big happy fella.

 

[lilacamy931]

I did go with happiness as having had 9 bettas, some do it all the time and others never have, if it was instinct I would imagine they would all do it? I guess it is a bit of both...

 

[Trollfest]

Hmm, about 50/50. I'd still like to think it's cos he's happy!

 

[StrontiumDog]

I did go with happiness as having had 9 bettas, some do it all the time and others never have, if it was instinct I would imagine they would all do it? I guess it is a bit of both...

Sorry i'd have to argue on that point, most if not all males in the animal kingdom, brag about how big they are and how strong they are.
Bettas are no different, thats why they build a bubble nest to invite females. If the female thinks he's a waste of time and isn't strong enough for the job she goes else where.

Thats why most breeders recomend you have a back up pair for breeding. Either the male isn't up to it or the female rejects.

Just my point of view, Hope I don't offend anyone.

 

[lilacamy931]

Not offended at all Strontiumdog, we each have opinions I like to think happiness but wouldnt be 100% certain, it would make sense from instinct point of view.

 

[llamalord305]

Ive seen absolutely horrid living conditions, and they still blow nests. So I would call it instinct.

 

[aly_starh]

well actually come to think of it. Spikey never really made any bubble nests until oscar and Sparkle came along, maybe he sensed that there was a threat, so his instinct made him build one

 

[Amberleaf]

Hahaha - my male and female breeding pair have a divider in their tank, and the female can slip through whenever she wants. ^^; he only builds a bubble nest when she's actually in the compartment, and if she's in the corner of the divider away from his nest..... otherwise he just spends all his time courting her and leaves the bubble nest for dead. yesterdy they spawned actually, but then she went back into her compartment and he ate all the eggs. XD

 

[Assaye]

I've known bettas in nasty, ammonia filled jars to make bubble nests. It has little to do with happiness or quality of care and it's dangerous to use it as a measure of such.

If they are happy, and inclined to bubble nest, you will probably see them doing quite a lot of it, but as I said, they can and do also make them when they should be pretty miserable.

 

[finalfantay85]

Mine tried making a bubblenest in a flower vase after a fight with some guppies and he definately wasn't happy in there so i'm going with instinct on this one

 

[theshadowinc]

Having bred bettas and breeding them this winter again, I will definitly say it has nothing to do with happyness, a good example would be I had a nest builder about 50% of the tank filled with bubbles I let the female out all looked good guess what he wasn't happy at all attacked till the female was almost dead! (We use the female to stimulate the male into making a nest usually because of aggression not because of a mating dance lol, goes with the comment of who is the bigger man best men make the biggest bubblenests) He didn't seem happy after that bred, a breed gone bad basically. He went back to building a nest. I have had them in jars for jaring and seen them build bubblenests with no one in sight, even seen them in stores with bubble nests nasty ammo water in those cups! they still build bubblenests, its more of an instinct with them, usually the ones that can't and will not build a nest are the ones to avoid simply from a breeding point they would not be very good fathers.

Good example would be take 2 males put them side by side they will blow a nest crazy now take a female and put one inbetween they will make a bubblenest even more crazy why you have 2 male the violent part of it and a female inbetween they want to fight over who is the more dominate male so the bigger bubblenest wins. What I would like to see besides what already happens people use them for fighting and breed only the good known fighters(Plakets known as PK's), I would like to see someone follow a line and breed ones that actually blow huge bubblenests only issue is when you look at genetics it has nothing to do with it. So looking at how someone would look at something like this is a challenge at its best