Bubble Nests?

[SprinklerBandit]

I'm new to keeping Bettas; I have a royal blue fantail, Caesar, that I got at a local petstore and absolutely adore. When I got him, I put him in a 1.5 or 2 (I can't remember) hexagon with an undergravel filter. He was elated to have all that extra space, and seemed pretty happy. I didn't know about bubble nests at the time, but the surface of the water was almost completely covered in bubbles.

I'd been wanting to get him a slightly bigger tank, so when the light went out on my first tank, I upgraded to a 3 gallon Eclipse tank with a bio-wheel filter. That was maybe a week and a half ago. Caesar seems pretty happy for the most part, but I've noticed a distinct lack of bubbles. There are a couple, but nothing like it was before. Does this mean anything? Does he just need more time to get acclimated? Should I put him back in the old tank? I'm assuming bubble nests are a sign of general contentedness in a Betta.

Any help here would be great. I'm considering setting up the old tank and just running it to see if some of those glorious bubbles weren't caused by the filter.

 

[SoCalMom]

The filter might be stressing him out as bettas like still water

 

[Lynda B]

If you have a strong enough current in your tank from the filter, you probably won't see a bubblenest. Bettas don't really need filters unless they're in a larger tank or you're not good about changing their water enough. The extra effort is well worth it though, when you see those wonderful bubblenests.

 

[SprinklerBandit]

Is it alright to turn the filter off for a while and see how that affects him? I heard that the filter was supposed to run constantly.

 

[SoCalMom]

Is it alright to turn the filter off for a while and see how that affects him? I heard that the filter was supposed to run constantly.

Bettas don't need filters. So yes, you can turn the filter off

 

[ChaseTheBetta]

I have that same 2 gallon hexagon tank with an undergravel filter for Chase. All those bubbles you were seeing were from the air pump/air stone.

As long as he's still swimming and seems happy, I wouldn't worry about it. Not all bettas make bubble nests. Chase doesn't. Even when I had to put him in a goldfish bowl with no current for a few days when I was cleaning his tank, he still didn't make a nest.