Male betta building bubble nests

[nik_n]

Hello,
my male betta, who lives alone, keeps building bubble nests. This one is the biggest one he has ever built. I'm guessing that because he is enjoying the tank and is mature? Is this normal, I know they mostly build nests when they are ready to breed.

I'm not sure whether I want to breed bettas. My LFS wouldn't take many of them at the time, and it would take a lot of effort to separate the males. Also I know that labyrinth fish a long time to grow. I had my blue gourami's spawn and I took about 10 months before they were ready to sell. I fed them 3-4 times a day (brine shrimp (live and frozen), frozen food and dry food) and did water changes 2-3 times a week (70%).
Would this be similar to breeding bettas?

 

[Colin_T]

I'm guessing that because he is enjoying the tank and is mature? Is this normal,

Yes.

I had my blue gourami's spawn and I took about 10 months before they were ready to sell.

Things that help baby fish grow.

Warm water, have the temperature around 28C for maximum growth rates.

Lots of food. Feed them 3-5 times each day and give them as much as they can eat. Then put some live baby brineshrimp in the tank for them to snack on over the next few hours. You want the babies to have fat stomachs and look like a pregnant guppy.

Big daily water changes and gravel cleaning. This keeps the water cleaner and dilutes any hormones produced by the growing fry.

Lots of room. The more room they have, the faster they grow. If you have space outside, maybe look into getting a pond for growing the babies up. You can buy aquaculture ponds that are 4ft, 6ft, 8ft, 10ft in diameter x 3 or 4 ft high. These make great rearing tanks for baby fish. Even large plastic storage containers can be used. I used a plastic swimming pool that was about 8ft diameter x about 1ft deep. The fish grow remarkably quickly in large volumes of water.