why do storms cause bubblenesting?

[homegrown terror]

the only possible answer i can think of is that wild bettas, living isolated in small bodies of water, might instinctively know that a coming storm will mean floods, which could wash a potential mate into their home, and want to be ready when she arrives.

[Fenghuang]

I would think the monsoon season would also mean more food for wild bettas. Mosquito and other insects populations would boom after the rains and moist, humid weather. Naturally, the best time to want to reproduce is when there is an abundance of food.

[aemaki09]

The change in barometric pressure is what causes it, anything that could change it means more nests.
Plus rainy season brings more insects and that's what they eat naturally.

[LittleBettaFish]

Yeah I think it is the drop in pressure that triggers it. It's also like how if you do a water change with cooler water you can trigger spawning activity. That's how I get my wild species to spawn.

[Silverfang]

I was told by a breeder that a storm, usually caused her boys to get frisky, and she'd go ahead and spawn them.

[BettaHeart]

would that work with snow storms?

[aemaki09]

IT should, all snow is is frozen rain.

You can get barometers at most places that sell fish for pretty cheap. I've been thinking about buying one just to see what kinds of weather influence it, if its any change in barometric pressure, or if its only rainstorms

[Myates]

Originally Posted by homegrown terror

the only possible answer i can think of is that wild bettas, living isolated in small bodies of water, might instinctively know that a coming storm will mean floods, which could wash a potential mate into their home, and want to be ready when she arrives.

You do realize that bettas don't live in small puddles..
They live in rice paddies, swamps, wetlands, and shallow ponds. These bodies of water, though shallow, are quite expansive; rice paddies typically span many acres. Some places their waters can go on for miles. There is nothing "small" about their homes except for during the dry season where the water can become smaller.. but between May until October they are in Monsoon season which means a ton of rain.

So some areas may be shallow, but not small.. no "washing of potential mates" as it doesn't work that way.. females will travel all around the acres/miles visiting different males as they go. They don't just live in rice paddies.. (each segment of those are often very large).

[LittleBettaFish]

Some species of bettas do actually live in pretty small bodies of water during the dry season. This is the habitat of Betta rutilans and as you can see it is not that deep. It's more like a series of puddles. I would guess that during periods of excessive rain that fish may be able to access areas that would otherwise have been out of reach to them. Otherwise those fish are going to be fairly inbred.



However, this is probably less the case with splendens, imbellis etc. as they do tend to live in the bigger ditches and rice paddies.

[Skyewillow]

Originally Posted by aemaki09

You can get barometers at most places that sell fish for pretty cheap. I've been thinking about buying one just to see what kinds of weather influence it, if its any change in barometric pressure, or if its only rainstorms

Also, Garden centers and Home improvement stores will sell them. They won't be as tiny and incognito as fish store ones, but you can find some beautiful ones