Why Wont My Males Make Bubble Nests?

trojannemo

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i have a:
- 6-7 month old VT from Walmart
- ~4-5 month old VT from Pet SuperMarket
- ~5 month old VT from Pet SuperMarket
- ~3 (maybe less?) month old HM from Petco

none of them make bubble nests...at all :blink: i understand why one of them wouldn't, as he is temporarily in the middle partition of my divided tank where there is a lot of current from the filter. bot the older VT, and the HM are on partitions with no direct current. the 5 month old is in his own bowl. they all get fed at least 1, usually 2 times a day. water params are fine. all have heaters, filters.
the only thing they dont have or get to see are females.

from what I keep reading on here, shouldn't they still be making me nests? :unsure:
 
I'm not sure i heard it's when they are happy they make nests but i had one inside my tank once in a breeding trap for 2 days while i established his new tank and he loved it in there making a new nest all the time, then i have another male who has his own 5g tank and ive never seen him make a nest i guess the water needs to be completely calm or for some betta a female near them.
 
some just arnt big nest builders till they see a female. also my problem with my males is I have very hard water and the bubblenests tend not to stick very well. I use indian almond leaf when spawning and it helps a good bit.
 
some just arnt big nest builders till they see a female. also my problem with my males is I have very hard water and the bubblenests tend not to stick very well. I use indian almond leaf when spawning and it helps a good bit.

oh that could be it. i have very hard water as well. i can't keep GBR or cardinal tetras...they keep dying on me for no reason (well now i know it's the water hardness anyways)

well thanks for the input. i just wanted to make sure my guys were ok :nod:
 
some just arnt big nest builders till they see a female. also my problem with my males is I have very hard water and the bubblenests tend not to stick very well. I use indian almond leaf when spawning and it helps a good bit.

oh that could be it. i have very hard water as well. i can't keep GBR or cardinal tetras...they keep dying on me for no reason (well now i know it's the water hardness anyways)

well thanks for the input. i just wanted to make sure my guys were ok :nod:


I have Very Hard Water and find IAL works wonders for non Nesters.
 
you answered your own question when you said "he is temporarily in the middle partition of my divided tank where there is a lot of current from the filter."

Bettas come from calm slow moving water with very little turbulence. If there is too much water movement, particularly surface turbulence, the males won't bother trying to build a bubble nest because it just keeps getting broken up.
Have some floating plants in the tank and reduce the water movement. Water Sprite (Ceratopteris thalictroids) is a good plant for the surface. Make sure the fish are well fed on frozen and live foods and keep the temperature above 26C. Then they should build a nest pretty quickly.
 
i guess i have to get some IAL and some water sprite.

I'm feeding my guys Hikari Betta Bio-Gold in the mornings and Tetra Betta-Min at night. they love both and eat them ravenously.
The tank has a 50W heater that keeps the temperature (cant change it) at 79F.
Even though the water looks great, I change it every 1.5 weeks or so.

I understand why the one in the middle partition wouldn't make them, but what about the other two guys? maybe they are making them and the air stones were disturbing them. i reduced the bubbles to as low as possible without shutting the valve off completely.

lets see what happens now :rolleyes:
 
Oh... I've been unlucky with my males building nests as well. Cept for my last unnamed red guy.
He didn't make a bubblenest until one day when the water lvl had lowered enough to where one of the sword plant leaves was resting at the surface. He quickly took advantage of that and made his first bubblenest.
So I bought soem styrofoam drinking cups, cut them in half and put them in to both of my males' tanks.
The red fella LOOOOOOOVED it. He made the biggest bubblenests.
My lazy fella Rex that never bothered making a bubblenest before, would start up on one, then quickly forget about it.

So yeah... I'd try getting your bettas some floating plants, or try the styrofoam cup method.
 

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