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One of my previous bettas would always be building nests (they make rafts of bubbles in a corner of the tank) despite the fact that we never even considered getting a female.

Mikey wrote:One of my previous bettas would always be building nests (they make rafts of bubbles in a corner of the tank) despite the fact that we never even considered getting a female.

Must have been an optimist.

My betta at my office (I have three tanks with a forth waiting for a good cleaning to get set up) has built himself a bubble nest. It's instinctual and a sign that they're "happy" with their conditions. Hard to imagine him not being happy. He went from a 1 pint death cup to a 6 gallon filtered and decorated fish tank.

IDK... my second betta ("Beta" betta) lived quite happily in an old-school goldfish bowl. Larger than is commonly purchased for bettas, of course, and we were strict about water changes... but he lived in that bowl for about four years. He liked having the open top - he would catch any kind of flying insect that dared to fly to close to the surface. We think he had some trout in his ancestry.

If you're religious about water changes you can make it work. The problem is that you have to be religious about water changes. I go away for a week and the most significant prep work I have to do is portion out some food into a pill keeper and have my secretary dump one compartment in each day I'm gone.