Oh the day is looking up =)

[BettaMomma]

Six is working on his first bubble nest EVER.
I will have to admit, I have never ever actually *seen* a fish working on a bubblenest but I'm so excited - he's very busy right now. I called my coworkers over to look at it. They all kinda looked at each other like this ---> and then walked away. heh heh heh

I for the life of me can't figure out why he has just randomly started making one today. I have done nothing different today than any other day. But I'm so very glad.

 

[Raechal]

Since my boys have had an upgrade in their tanks and frozen foods almost everyday or every other day, they've become lazy fat pigs and don't make bubblenests anymore.

Except Cotton Candy, he always seems to impress me with his thick bubblenests.

 

[moneycar]

sorry...I'm (as previously mentioned) new.

What are bubble nests? Do they only make them when breeding?

 

[BettaMomma]

Well, you're correct - they do make them when they're ready to breed, but they make them when they're generally happy with life. It's a sure sign that you're doing something right if you discover a littel pile of bubbles in their tank near a spot they like to hang out in.

Here's a very tiny one:

They can get really big if they work on them long enough.
I have found nests that were in the vicinity of 5" wide, 3" long, and about 1/2" deep.

It's very exciting to discover the first one!

 

[Raechal]

Bettamomma, just wanted to let you know Angus is doing wonderful and his tail is in GREAT condition! He is no a very bright red and his purple rays have come back! How is your little girl?

 

[OohFeeshy]

Out of my two, Hannibals only made one (apart from a few random bubbles which don't really count) and Vespasian only made one when he was in the smaller tank. I'll see whether he'll do one in the 20, I moved him becuase he was seriuosly depressed in the smaller one.

 

[BettaMomma]

Bettamomma, just wanted to let you know Angus is doing wonderful and his tail is in GREAT condition! He is no a very bright red and his purple rays have come back! How is your little girl?

That's WONDERFUL news!
Little Liza is doing great.
She's in the big tank with the rest of the hags.
She is the feistiest little teeny thing I've ever seen.
She makes me feel super guilty whenever I drop pellets in the tank because she looks all around at them, then out the tank at me, then back up to the top again and back out at me. She hates pellets and wants bloodworms and peas all the time so she tries to guilt me into cooking them all up for her every night. She gets them every other night. She is still very very teeny in proportion to the other girls who are growing like bad weeds. I'm thinking she's going to grow up to be a minigirl, just like wuv's miniboy.

Yay - I'm glad Angus is feeling better

 

[moneycar]

It's a sure sign that you're doing something right if you discover a littel pile of bubbles in their tank near a spot they like to hang out in.

I've seen one of those in two of my three betta tanks!!! I didn't realize what it meant.

Chester (my veil tale)'s nearly covered the entire surface (behind his plant) at one point!

 

[Raechal]

Bettamomma, just wanted to let you know Angus is doing wonderful and his tail is in GREAT condition! He is no a very bright red and his purple rays have come back! How is your little girl?

That's WONDERFUL news!
Little Liza is doing great.
She's in the big tank with the rest of the hags.
She is the feistiest little teeny thing I've ever seen.
She makes me feel super guilty whenever I drop pellets in the tank because she looks all around at them, then out the tank at me, then back up to the top again and back out at me. She hates pellets and wants bloodworms and peas all the time so she tries to guilt me into cooking them all up for her every night. She gets them every other night. She is still very very teeny in proportion to the other girls who are growing like bad weeds. I'm thinking she's going to grow up to be a minigirl, just like wuv's miniboy.

Yay - I'm glad Angus is feeling better

I am thinking Pea princess will stay small as well and be a mini-betta. She eats like a pig, but never grows. She is in her own 3 gallon tank now and loves it! She just isn't growing at all. She won't eat pellets or anything dry besides those cubed tubifex worms, she likes those. I usually feed her bloodworms and brine shrimp everyday. I am going to go buy her some tubifex worms this weekend.

 

[eudielynn]

It's a sure sign that you're doing something right if you discover a littel pile of bubbles in their tank near a spot they like to hang out in.

I've seen one of those in two of my three betta tanks!!! I didn't realize what it meant.

Chester (my veil tale)'s nearly covered the entire surface (behind his plant) at one point!

Then you have a very happy betta! Congratulations!

 

[BettaMomma]

Out of my two, Hannibals only made one (apart from a few random bubbles which don't really count) and Vespasian only made one when he was in the smaller tank. I'll see whether he'll do one in the 20, I moved him becuase he was seriuosly depressed in the smaller one.

It seems like when I discover nests, it's when I would least expect it. It's odd.
Like the other night, I got sick of Jack's blue gravel leaving nasty little blue chips everywhere in his tank so I switched his tank to natural rocks.
In the process, I decided to take out his rock arch and gave him a little clay pot looking thing that has holes in it for him to swim through. I also chucked his silk plant and gave him some real cabomba.

Why stop there, you ask? Well, I didn't. I ripped out his old "just adds about 4 degrees to room temperature" heater and got him a 25 watt heater and added it to his tank.

So, in essence I took everything away from him and gave him a completely different environment.
A day and a half later he had a nice bubblenest going again.

 

[Kiarra]

How's the weather, BM? Because it's raining here, and everyone is workng on a bubblenest, including the new guy with half a tail and the guy who can't even reach the surface without sitting on his perch. They're sensitive to changes in barometric pressure, and it means the breeding season when the rain comes in...so everyone has to build a bubblenest as fast as he can manage.

 

[BettaMomma]

Seriously? The weather? Wow - that's Interesting....
Well... it's gotten pretty cold here, and it's supposed to rain - well, it's been off and on rainy all week. And come to think of it, this IS the first week when we've had rainy stormy weather since he's come to live with me.

Hmmph.

And I thought he just really liked my new green sweater.

Do you think that, when you look into their tanks after they've been working on a nest, they think "Hey ma! Look what I did!!" or do you think they're moreso saying "Yo, ma - get outta my face so I can get back to making my bubbles!"

??

 

[Kiarra]

Depends on the fish.

I've had some where they wiggle and then run back to their bubblenest for ME, like they're trying to show me. And then I've had some that stayed beneath the bubblenest and flared at me, warning me off. Just depends on the little guy.

 

[eudielynn]

How's the weather, BM? Because it's raining here, and everyone is workng on a bubblenest, including the new guy with half a tail and the guy who can't even reach the surface without sitting on his perch. They're sensitive to changes in barometric pressure, and it means the breeding season when the rain comes in...so everyone has to build a bubblenest as fast as he can manage.

That would explain Batista going nuts. It's been raining here off and on all week and he has been having a bubble nest frenzy.