female bubblenest

[afishcalledsushi]

Hi all,
I've had my lil girl for about 4 months now. She's in a 1 gallon tank (I know, I'm planning to get a bigger one soon). I just have the one female--no male and I don't plan to breed.

She's laid eggs once before but let them just sit at the bottom. Just yesterday she laid some more and created her own bubblenest and put several eggs up into it. She seems upset that her bubbles keep popping and keeps swimming around trying to recreate the nest.

is it normal for a female to act this way?
also, its almost time for me to do a water change--can I do this without upset her too much?

[dramaqueen]

Hello and welcome to the forum. Females sometimes will make a bubblenest and put their eggs in it. Its nothing to worry about. You can change the water without any problems. She'll be ok.

[imelda]

My female Imelda, who is my only fish, also created a nest last week and laid like a 100 eggs. I was watching her, and I moved too fast, she got scared and moved away very fast, dispersing half of the eggs all over the tank (it looked like a snow globe). She ate a bunch of them and the rest went to the bottom. I cleaned the tank the next day.

Now she is behaving strange. She is inflating her sides and showing her gills. I feel like she is upset. Is this normal?

[BettaxFishxCrazy]

That's called flaring. Males aren't the only ones that will flare, females do also. Is she doing it when she sees her reflection?

[Jupiter]

It's normal for a female to blow bubblenests when there isn't a male around. Some of my females blew bubbles, but they never laid eggs.