my bettas behavior

Question
our male betta lives in big vase  a gallon and a half temp about 74 - 80 and we give him spring water feed him blood worms every day once a day. he has made some bubbles at the top of the vase.is that acause of unhappiness or sickness. heis in the middle of the room and there is alot of comotion. is there something we can do?

Answer
Hi Lance;

Congratulations! You have a very happy betta! The bubbles are a nest for him to put eggs in when a female comes along he can coax into breeding with him. The male cares for the nest and takes the fertilized eggs into his mouth, spitting them into the nest. He works on them all day and all night. When the babies hatch he does the same with them and guards them from predators, including the female. The male will often try to kill her too because she will eat the eggs and/or babies. Gouramis and paradise fish breed the same way. It's a pretty cool thing to see! Here are some links to pictures of the process;

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article11.html
http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/bettas/betta_breeding.htm
http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Betta,%20Breeding%20basics.htm

Followups welcome

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins

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http://freshaquarium.about.com/od/questionsanswers/a/naavigateforum.htm

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