Bubble nest?

[MidnightBel]

Is this the start of a bubble nest? My former betta used to make some, but never this many. 

[Fish Folk]

Looks like! Are you breeding bettas?

This week, I’m moving along my juvenile Bettas hatched between Christmas and New Year…

[Lennie]

surface scum/biofilm  usually ends up like tiny bubbles on the surface if pushed around. Usually male bettas make a nest  at one spot. Or better to say, I have never seen any of my 5 male bettas making bubblenests spread around just like in the picture.

One of them might be a nest but not all of them, IMO.

Here are examples of bubblenests from two different pairs I had. And yes, they can build crazy nests!

My dragon male, with nests at two different times:

 

My koi male mating, catching eggs and showing the nest he built!

 

[MidnightBel]

So I just got this male and my sister a female not long ago. We put a black divider in a 10 gallon for quarantine. It has been about 3 weeks now. We had no plans on breeding at the time. The female is definitely old enough because she has the egg spot showing obviously and is carrying eggs. I feel so bad now because I was fasting her for a few days before figuring this out. The male now a week later, started building this nest. I caught him mid day making it so that was super exciting. He doesn't have super bright colors though. He has red on the edges and gray on his entire body, though it looks like it has been turning slightly blue since getting him. It seems he was making it not too far away from the airstone so it was getting pushed slightly. We still have no plans of mating any time soon and have no idea the age of the male either. He built the nest around a half week after we added 6 super large Indian almond leaves. He was nipping is his own fins recently which is why I added it. It undid some of the beautiful growth we had gotten out of him at the 2 weeks mark. Planning to add a bit of salt for good measure.

 

He will be going in a community tank due to his personality. We put a school of zebra danios on quarantine next to the betta quarantine tank with the plan to add a divider to stop their view if they were too concerned to go towards them. They showed interest for about an hour, but then went about their normal behavior. 

[Lennie]

On 2/18/2024 at 1:31 AM, MidnightBel said:

So I just got this male and my sister a female not long ago. We put a black divider in a 10 gallon for quarantine. It has been about 3 weeks now. We had no plans on breeding at the time. The female is definitely old enough because she has the egg spot showing obviously and is carrying eggs. I feel so bad now because I was fasting her for a few days before figuring this out. The male now a week later, started building this nest. I caught him mid day making it so that was super exciting. He doesn't have super bright colors though. He has red on the edges and gray on his entire body, though it looks like it has been turning slightly blue since getting him. It seems he was making it not too far away from the airstone so it was getting pushed slightly. We still have no plans of mating any time soon and have no idea the age of the male either. He built the nest around a half week after we added 6 super large Indian almond leaves. He was nipping is his own fins recently which is why I added it. It undid some of the beautiful growth we had gotten out of him at the 2 weeks mark. Planning to add a bit of salt for good measure.

 

He will be going in a community tank due to his personality. We put a school of zebra danios on quarantine next to the betta quarantine tank with the plan to add a divider to stop their view if they were too concerned to go towards them. They showed interest for about an hour, but then went about their normal behavior. 

To increase the chance of keeping a betta in a community tank, add the betta last to the tank. Otherwise they set their tank as a terrotority and will not welcome any future additions.

 

If your divider allows water to go through, like basically the betta in quarantine are now exposed to new pathogens and so potential diseases due to addition of new fish nextdoor, I would say that basically restarts the quarantine process for the betta(s) there.

If you are planning to keep zebra danios with any of the bettas, I gotta say that is not an ideal combination. Zebra danios are crazy active and energetic, known as potential fin nippers, can easily compete a betta for food and stress bettas with their very high activity level. Also zebra danios require a big space and group to meet their energy levels and considerably cooler temps of 18 to 24C meanwhile bettas need around 26C at least for their immune system and metabolism to work properly. I would suggest lower activity level fish that are not known as finnippers and that might enjoy sharing similar tank conditions, especially temperature

[MidnightBel]

The zebra danios are in a seperate tank with two male guppies. Because my sis and mom wanted one of the male guppies. The zebra danios will be going in a different tank to the betta with a deformed white cloud minnow from the same store. I didn't want them breeding with other white clouds, but was told my 2 keepers they think it is a birth defect or injury during growth. I felt bad and didn't want them to cull him or leave him without some sort of fish to potentially school with. I intended to get neon tetras at first, but they didn't have any at the time. I put them near the betta to see how they acted near each other. The zebras also have been leaving the male guppies alone. The zebras I got were a school of 5 planned to go into 9 gallon planted tank. I thought zebras could go up to 78° F though, but as low as room temp as well. 

[Lennie]

On 2/18/2024 at 5:16 AM, MidnightBel said:

The zebra danios are in a seperate tank with two male guppies. Because my sis and mom wanted one of the male guppies. The zebra danios will be going in a different tank to the betta with a deformed white cloud minnow from the same store. I didn't want them breeding with other white clouds, but was told my 2 keepers they think it is a birth defect or injury during growth. I felt bad and didn't want them to cull him or leave him without some sort of fish to potentially school with. I intended to get neon tetras at first, but they didn't have any at the time. I put them near the betta to see how they acted near each other. The zebras also have been leaving the male guppies alone. The zebras I got were a school of 5 planned to go into 9 gallon planted tank. I thought zebras could go up to 78° F though, but as low as room temp as well. 

Ah I see!

Same warning can be valid for male guppies, be careful. Especially it is a long tail one. Small and better swimming species like panda guppies would be okay I believe but long fin guppies can be easily overcompeted, stressed about the activity and may be nipped. Zebra danios are extremely active as I mentioned, so minimum of 90x30cm tank footprint is suggested from what I see in seriouslyfish. Bigger swimming space and bigger group the tank support is better. If you ask me, 9gallon is tiny and cannot meet these guys’ activity levels.

I mentioned the temp range based on the fisbase stats. Seriouslyfish also says 25C max. Is there any reason why you wanna keep it at 78F? Guppies and white clouds can also go lower than that. Im not sure if it is still the case as I have been seeing zebra danios in a bad shape a lot recently, but zebra danios used to be known as very hardy fish. So they can tolerate a temp above their desired rsnge probably, but it would at least shorten the life span I guess

https://www.fishbase.se/summary/4653 

Edited February 18 by Lennie

[MidnightBel]

On 2/18/2024 at 1:53 AM, Lennie said:

Ah I see!

Same warning can be valid for male guppies, be careful. Especially it is a long tail one. Small and better swimming species like panda guppies would be okay I believe but long fin guppies can be easily overcompeted, stressed about the activity and may be nipped. Zebra danios are extremely active as I mentioned, so minimum of 90x30cm tank footprint is suggested from what I see in seriouslyfish. Bigger swimming space and bigger group the tank support is better. If you ask me, 9gallon is tiny and cannot meet these guys’ activity levels.

I mentioned the temp range based on the fisbase stats. Seriouslyfish also says 25C max. Is there any reason why you wanna keep it at 78F? Guppies and white clouds can also go lower than that. Im not sure if it is still the case as I have been seeing zebra danios in a bad shape a lot recently, but zebra danios used to be known as very hardy fish. So they can tolerate a temp above their desired rsnge probably, but it would at least shorten the life span I guess

https://www.fishbase.se/summary/4653 

From what I read guppies preferred it a bit warmer than the other two. Would it be safe to keep the minnow, zebra danios, and guppies at 73.5F (23C)? Here is a pic of the guppy. 

The white cloud and 2 guppy fry that were being chased by a small zebra are being kept at 73.6F at the moment. 

Right now the zebras and guppies are kept at 76.3 (preset heater so I can't choose which I hate. Hope to get a new one soon.)

The zebras pay no mind to the guppies from what I've seen. The only cared about the guppy fry so I moved them out until I could get a divider. If I can keep them at that current temp of 73.6 I would prefer it so they don't have to restart quarantine. 

[Lennie]

On 2/18/2024 at 10:42 AM, MidnightBel said:

From what I read guppies preferred it a bit warmer than the other two. Would it be safe to keep the minnow, zebra danios, and guppies at 73.5F (23C)? Here is a pic of the guppy. 

The white cloud and 2 guppy fry that were being chased by a small zebra are being kept at 73.6F at the moment. 

Right now the zebras and guppies are kept at 76.3 (preset heater so I can't choose which I hate. Hope to get a new one soon.)

The zebras pay no mind to the guppies from what I've seen. The only cared about the guppy fry so I moved them out until I could get a divider. If I can keep them at that current temp of 73.6 I would prefer it so they don't have to restart quarantine. 

White clouds are also colder water fish like zebra danios. Lower than 23C would be even more desired for these guys. Fishbase says 18-22C.

Guppies are usually mentioned as at least 22C in the long term. I keep mine around 20-21C during winter time as I heat the fishroom, not the tanks as long as the tanks need high numbers like german blue rams. And they are all good, but they don't breed prolifically, which is also good -for me-.

If I were you I would set up the tank at 21 or 22C myself

@beastie around what temp do you keep your white clouds?

[MidnightBel]

I read a ton where 72F was the absolute lowest but 74 plus was the desired range for guppies. A few said 73 was okay. I will go with 72-72.5 then. I keep my room warm enough that room temp is 70F on a cold night. Usually 72, but I will be putting a heater in just to be safe. Thank you for all your suggestions.

[Lennie]

On 2/18/2024 at 11:37 AM, MidnightBel said:

I read a ton where 72F was the absolute lowest but 74 plus was the desired range for guppies. A few said 73 was okay. I will go with 72-72.5 then. I keep my room warm enough that room temp is 70F on a cold night. Usually 72, but I will be putting a heater in just to be safe. Thank you for all your suggestions.

Yea I hear the same. That being said I have 7 species only guppy tanks in the fishroom, and I havent observed any problems on them being kept at 20-21C at this time of year. Temperature usually affects the immunity system and metabolism if I am not mistaken, but guppies seem to be more tolerant overall in comparison to many other tropical fish in my experience

But again, if one wants to breed prolifically, that might pose a problem

[beastie]

Mine are around room temp, most of the time 20-21°C, summer it goes up to 25°C and some times even around 18°C. I do a cold water change so they often experience 11 and so for short term. So far they are doing great.

[MidnightBel]

Should I be keeping the guppies, zebra, and white cloud on warmer side still until they are done being treated for parasites? What temp should it be for all species? I know guppies would def needed to be higher than the others at least. Starting treatment today for parasites as was recommended to me.