Tropical Fish Forums

[araluen]

Do female bettas make bubble nests? I've read a ton of pages and haven't seen any mention of females making bubble nests so far... I have 1 male and 2 female bettas in separate tanks. I recently moved the tanks so that they are near each other, and the female near the male created a bubble nest today. She has the "white sand grain" (I think it's the egg tube??) so I'm pretty sure she's a girl, but I've never seen a female betta make a nest before.

[Luna]

It's possible for this to happen. However, it is a higher probability that you actually have a young plakat male. They often have fake ovipositors to fool older males, to protect themselves from attack. If it has long ventral fins and a wide dorsal fin, it is almost definitely a male. Do you have pictures you can post?

[araluen]

http://picasaweb.google.com/shaolinelvaan/UntitledAlbum/photo#5219611178458565586

It's not a great picture. I'll try to take a better one later today.

[Luna]

Well, it looks like that is a male plakat. Post a clear picture and maybe the betta gurus will help us out.

The swollen belly could be from eating too much. We'll see.

[Jacko]

I agree with Luna, it does look like a PK from that picture, a clearer one would be tons better.
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[araluen]

A plakat as in bred-for-fighting plakat?

[Jacko]

[araluen]

http://picasaweb.google.com/shaolinelvaan/UntitledAlbum

I posted a couple better photos of him/her. She/he was sold to me as a halfmoon female but I wouldn't be surprised if that were incorrect seeing as it was Petco or Petsmart or one of those (I know, I'm a bad person. We went in there to get a cat scratch thing and I can never walk past the bettas without buying one.)

[Jacko]

How much of a bubblenest is it? Is it a full-blown one or just a smattering of bubbles on the surface?

I can't really tell, can't see much of his/her fins from above. I do know that females possess the same gland/organ that the males have that creates the mucus that coats the bubbles that makes them not pop easily. Theirs is just smaller, when you watch them breed you will notice the female sometimes also helps in rebuilding the bubblenest or catching fry and spitting them and adding bubbles.
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[araluen]

It's not a huge thick bubblenest but it's definitely more than scattered bubbles. It's a little smaller than the diameter of an aluminum soda can.