Gravel or not in a 1.5g tank?

[Snowbrumby]

That would have been a sight worth seeing I think

And yes, it was sad to pour Opal's nest down the drain I did debate leaving it alone and just doing a 50% water change again but figured that fresh water was more important for him so changed it.
He and Rainbow do seem happy here - but when you look at where they came from you can understand why. The standard setup - 20 Bettas side by side in little jars. We'd gone to get one for my daughter and I was going to help her look after him and while we were looking at them Opal flared at me and just kept looking at me My daughter had picked him first then she saw Rainbow all flared up and picked him instead - I just couldn't walk away and leave him there knowing that he was watching me
I did mention to the store guy that one of the other Bettas had a hole in his side and he said he'd put some drops in his water So I stood there and waited, no one came so I yelled across the store (politely of course ) "Don't forget about this sick fish!) Someone arrived pretty quick then and took him away. I hope he's going to be okay. If I had more knowledge I would have taken him too, but I just don't know enough about bringing a sick Betta back to health - I hope I did the right thing in leaving him there

 

[BettaMomma]

You did the right thing by telling someone.
I always tell someone if I see any sort of sick fish.
We can't bring them all home or my goodness, we'd for sure each have about 50 by now
MOST stores will appreciate it if you tell them about sickies.
I always try to tell them what disease I think they have, too, so they know that I'm a somewhat educated betta owner, and that also seems like it helps them feel more responsibility to help them.

 

[Raechal]

You can scoop the bubblenest into a cup and save it, then when you finish putting his water in his tank, dump the bubblenest back in his tank.

My oldest male betta just made his first bubblenest a few weeks ago and I've had him for about 6-7 months now. My other two boys made bubblenests the next day after bringing them home from the petstore. I guess it all depends on the betta.