What is a bubblenest?

This is taken from www.healthybetta.com

One day you wake up and see a grouping of tiny bubbles at the surface of the water in your betta’s tank. It may be along the tank wall, right in the middle, on the edge of a plant leaf, or another special place in your betta’s tank. What are all of these little clear bubbles you may wonder?

This huge bubblenest was blown by the betta Ermac. (Photo taken by Mike).

The purpose of a bubblenest
While it’s just fun for us to observe our betta building and tending to his bubblenest, the nest itself actually serves a very important purpose in the spawning process between male and female. A male betta builds a bubblenest as a means of attracting a female to mate. Once the nest and male gets the approval of a female and a spawn occurs, the male will place and tend to the fertilized eggs in the nest where they will later hatch.

The building of a bubblenest
If you’re lucky enough to catch your betta blowing bubbles for his nest, which usually takes place in the dark at night, it’s quite the interesting procedure. The male will take in air at the surface, then swim to the area beneath where the nest is being made and release a small bubble or two. The betta will continue this method back and forth until a nest of many bubbles is formed as they build up beneath each other. The actual bubbles are produced with mucous and you will notice they stick well to each other and any surrounding surfaces, which serves as a means to keeping eggs safe in the nest.