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.

Now bzzzz has been silenced

As one last tribute to The Busy Bee I'm posting a poem I wrote while I was still working there. But after that it's back to my fish because PUFFIN has started building me a BUBBLENEST!!!! This only means one thing - that my love is being reciprocated (he's ready for lurve too but I won't go into that.) So here goes....

The Busy Bee - a poem

It’s the same everyday come rain or shine
When they walk through the door I consider them mine.
I tend bar at The Bee; a dive bar on State
We serve chowder for lunch and stay open till late.

I’ve heard many stories from behind the beer taps
The fish grows by inches after every Pabst.
But it’s more than just burgers and blue collar beer
They come for the “Hey Hun, it’s about time you were here!”

The regular fellows are Paul, Bob, or Mike
And a bearded Green Bay fan who arrives on a bike.
There’s a priest, and a poet, and a blond with long hair
And a grumpy old cop who sleeps in his chair.

There’s a phone with no numbers not even a dial
And the men’s room is scary and needs some new tile.
There’s a photo of George dressed up like a girl
The loudest one in there he's deaf, and it's Earl.

The beer has been flowing for some 65 years
It started with veterans but now there’s some queers.
Speaking of which let’s turn to the Greeks
The first to say homos were humans not freaks!

They’re mad with the Romans and resent the Turks
And still taking credit for Plato’s great works.
So unless you’re in Greece don’t bother with feta

The burgers and fries at The Bee are much better.

Dave buddy, yours is next.

The Beer Hive

Did you think that you would ever see
beer dispensed by 2 stunning Queen Bees

Serving chilled golden nectar from 'On Tap'
with frosted base and frothy cap

Dreaming as you sit and stare
smelling sweet brews mist in the air

That maybe they'll let you drink all day
until your mind just drafts away

Then imagining your mouth might press
against a kegs sparkling effervescent breast

But sometimes in complete surprise
they'll bring you a ruben and nice order of fries

Poems are composed by fools like me
as I watch Mira and Cindy serving beer
at the Busy Bee

*****

More of Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang's (aka Dave Poet aka Markus Surrealious) can be found in the Betta Songbook in the BettaLinks section in the margin to the right.

Damage Control and a Second Chance

To my horror the pamphlet "Ten signs your fish is a MasterBetta" was a figment of my imagination and so I apologized to the wrongfully accused Diablo and paraphrased a couple proverbs about forgiveness. Diablo had no idea what I was talking about and just waited with a sour smile for me to finish my sermon and leave. But Xavier took the real hit. As usual he was happy to assist me in my search and he even said he was familar with the article. "Si Si" he said clearing his throat "I am a master of many things". He arrived at Fish 4 U the next morning and apologized profusley for not warning them ahead of time. This confused everyone since no one had the faintest idea who he was and why he stood in the doorway all morning greeting customers, autograph fish bowls, and tell stories of "Little Fin". He acted like a celebrity and so they treated him like one. He answered the bloody phone when I called down there and I hung up without saying anything.

The store stayed busy all day and everything was going swimmingly until a lady came into the store with a dead fish wanting a refund. Xavier who was standing on a chair at the time took her complaint personally and grabbing a handful of algae from the nearest tank threw it on the ground as hard as he could, then demanded to see the corpse. He beckoned the crowd to gather in and looking closely at the tail identified a unique fin-print and declared in a loud voice that the deceased fish was not from F4U but a genetically modified product from Wal-Mart known as the "$1.69 Master-Betta". A motionless crowd winced and somebody spurted a giggle. The cashier broke the silence by calling 911 and with a polaroid flash Xavier was banished to the Watch List.

Now years ago Xavier earned a place in the history books when he broke into Barry Manilow's mansion after he heard rumors that Betta's were to be given out as favors at the singers birthday celebration, but in the cold cellar the exquisite fish were perishing one by one. People watched Xavier being led away in handcuffs and his crumpled expresssion troubled the entire nation and for once he was taken seriously. This look of his became known as The Face of Defeat and it sent waves throughout the acting world and is still used as the base expression for all emotions melancholy. Xavier has worn out his famous grimace but he'll use it at every opportunity including the time he saw his name sharpied to the bottom of his photo at the fish store.

Outside in the rain-car-suicide-sit-and-watch-mobile I watched the Fish Lady hug Xavier with a blanket and walk up and down the aisles picking up dozens of inky petitions and tear-stained addresses for him to take to Washington. He sat there with that idiotic expression on his face sipping a warm drink like he was critically injured and by the time the police arrived his ban had been reduced to a two day suspension.

Diablo's roof of shame was in fact part of his Spiritual Bubble Retreat which is "centuries old and seeped in tradition and" to quote Rojo "is a ritual NOT to be taken lightly, much less desecrated but the likes of you Mira..." The wise fish also pointed out that had I NOT been buried in Betta-Smut and consumed with playing The Detective which he said was the worst display of role-playing he's ever seen, I might have learned something about Diablo's unique Bettage. He compared my attention span to a staple gun and predicted that future embarrassments could only be avoided if I learned to sit still and quietly observe the world around me. So clenching my teeth I listened like a Taoist monk to Rojo's diatribe on how Buddha was really a Betta.

After that Rojo asked if my Bettaship was current and how long I had been BettaSitting. Then he disappeared and a few hours later re-emerged with word from The BettaBoard saying that all would be forgiven if I found he and Diablo a WIFE.

I'm too jaded to be excited.

O Muse, where art thou?

One of my favorite movies is "The Candidate" starring Robert Redford. He plays a young politician running for Senate in early 1970's California. He's a young maverick, full of ideas and passion but in order to beat his opponent, an older more experienced Republican, he has to go against his own beliefs. After a series of compromises ole blue eyes secures a victorious win and the final scene shows California's newly elected senator sat in his campaign headquarters with the press going berserk outside and turning to his top adviser he asks "So now what do we do?".

The 600 plus hits delivered to my site over the last week has left me and the BettaBro's asking the same question and we're all feeling a little over-whelmed. Rojo hasn't moved out of his cave for days, which isn't a bad sign since he can handle it, but Diablo got a little self-consciousness over his dance recital from the other day and with all the attention, nay, publicity we've received he's made a bubble nest and is hiding under it.

tails, bubble nests, and the pursuit of happiness

I had a Betta commit suicide once. My friend asked me to watch her fish for a week and one day i came home and found an empty tank and poor 'Richard' lying on my carpet like a crisp dark leaf.
I told this to the fish lady from the other day and apparently, in the wild, Betta's will jump out of their pockets of water and land on a leaf and take a nap. As much as I want to believe her I think the fish lady is full of sh**.