Bettas and their bubble nests

[Finzzup]

I'm soon going to move my Betta from his 2G jar to a 6G Eclipse tank once it cycles. I'm curious though - will he continue to build his bubble nests in an aquarium with moving water??

Right now, his nest is so huge, it's circling 1/2 of the jar, about 8" long and about 1" high at the tallest point! This is about normal for him...

As I was watching my empty aquarium circulate water it occured to me that maybe he won't do this in that atmosphere...

[Pootspete]

I am finding since I put in a filter for my neons which share the 10 gallon with my Betta, my Betta does not blow his bubble nest anymore. So you may expect not to see it.:(

[kveeti]

I have a filtered 5 gallon for my betta. Here is what I made:

Go to the hardware store, buy vinyl tubing 1/4" diameter (don't need much, a foot which here cost 35 cents.) Next, an aquarium store to buy suction cups. The outsy ends of the suction cups fit tightly into the tubing (have to really force it). Then you can effectively section off a portion of the top of the tank, sticking the cups to the walls.

I will take pictures of mine and post them right away.

Edit: Ok, the good thing is the tubing is filled with air and floats nicely on the water and even adjusts to evaporating water levels (to a certain extent). You can see my Bixby loves to build his nests in it.

http://members.shaw.ca/kveeti/q_nest.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/kveeti/cup.jpg

The only down side is the look of the suction cups, but you can position them as a "U" both stuck on the back or side wall. (This also works for sectioning off duckweed so it's not floating all over the tank.)

[appaloosatb]

Thanks for the idea Kveeti! I'll have to try that for my duckweed... I would never have thought of that on my own! :D

[kveeti]

You're welcome. I tried several things before I came up with it. Basically I knew I wanted one of those feeder rings but LARGER. The only thing is, on water changes, the duckweed escapes and you have to round it up after you fill up the tank again. But I don't mind. I also have the large-leaf duckweed (each leaf 1/4").

Bixby's bubbles also excape on water change day, but he just builds new ones. Keeps him busy, I guess, cause heaven knows he ISN'T busy eating all the guppy fry.