Those bubble nest blues!

[sevenhelmet]

I was doing a partial water change in Merlin's tank today and his big old bubble nest got all messy and stuck to the side of the tank, so I wiped it off while I was cleaning up and then refilled the tank. I figured he'd rebuild it, since bettas often build right after a water change. Boy was that a mistake. He went over there and looked up at the spot where it'd been and then started flaring at everything and darting around like crazy! He's calmed down a little in the past hour, but that's the last time I mess with a bubble-nest...

[shadoew]

lol, yeah well bettas are territorial and destroying his pride and joy just kinda made him frustrated... But after a while he'll get bored enough and start making another one that's bigger and better!

[sawcat]

Mine always wait until a day or two before the next water change to build or rebuild their nests. Silly boys

[sevenhelmet]

Yeah, he's rebuilt it, although it's smaller this time... Maybe he's afraid his efforts would be wasted, or maybe he's PO'd that I only fed him one small bloodworm today. I'm trying to slim him down a bit. He's been pigging out on brine shrimp LOL.

[minesbetta]

I just got my second male yesterday afternoon. He is a really cool purpley pinky shiny guy with blue/violet fins. He acts the complete opposite of my blue male who is quite comical, but he seems to HATE my female, so his bubbles are always wasted...until I can find a female that will be able to take his crap. My female is special in her own right. She's a pinkish white with green iradescent fins with a couple black speckals on her body. (If anyone has a definition of what color they sound like, please tell! I've been trying to figure it out for a while. ) I'm working on getting pics of my "children" but they seem to know when the camera is on...and they go limp. My blue fish is Paco, my female is Pearl, my new male is still pending on the whole name issue. Pearl and the new guy seem to get along great. He blew up a HUGE nest overnight and she appeared good to go for a breeding so I plopped her in (really she didn't plop, she floated around in a fishy bag for a little bit to get used to the water first). New guy seemed quite curious about her and nosed at her in the bag the whole time. It's been a few hours and now they're acting "not interested." He acted like he wanted her to go back to his nest a few times, but I think she was too worried that he'd nip at her and flew to the opposite side of the tank. Also, I don't know how normal this is, but New Guy doesn't seem to understand that he can't swim through tank walls....he doesn't charge it or anything....just swims up slowly and tries to keep going. lol...I feel bad for him, but he does the wriggle when he's doin it. Also, he's not very fond of many foods. Perhaps it's because he's just getting used to not living in a cup. I'm open for tips on breeding my bettas. I've read more articles than I can believe about the issue and the idea of tank mates (which I've temporarily decided agaist having tank mates other than their breeding buddy) and read lots of good info and lots of good ideas....but seriously....I think this one i might need a less timid female. New guy can swim up to her all calm and wriggley like he is and not flare or anything to her and she takes off....FAST! I wish I knew what was goin on with their minds and could tell her to chill out and her know what that means. If anything I'm doing is generally wrong by betta standards, be gentle.....i'm a first time mom....but at least I didn't try keeping a community of bettas like the walmart guy....i really can't see 3 males and 3 females living peacefully unless he had a big tank divided 6 ways.