Scarlet Badis
 

Has anyone kept these LiL Jewels of a fish??? My LFS has been keeping them in stock lately and I have absolutely fallen in love with these beautiful fish!! I have read the profile in them but still wonder how to feed them??? Is it hard to get them to eat?? I have a 10 gallon tank up and running with snails for my puffers. It has Malaysian trumpet, bladder, and Apple snails it in. Could I also keep Scarlet Badis in there as well? I know I will have to get more plants for this tank. I don't have any driftwood but did have rocks in there. Is driftwood important to them???
I was thinking of getting 1 male and 3 females could that work in a 10gallon?? How heavily plant does the tank need to be???

The problem with this species is food. I had a group of 7 and one by one they disappeared. The last fish was in the tank for a couple months, and I suspect only because it found some live foods among the plants and wood. The only prepared food I could get them to eat were frozen bloodworms, and one shouldn't rely solely on these for health reasons. Unless you have a steady supply of small live foods you will likely have trouble with this species.

Other than that, no problem. Mine were in a 10g heavily planted tank.

Byron.

I will soon be able to get live blackworms. Would those be more nutritional then bloodworms?

No worms should be a staple food. They are high in protein and fat and eventually the fish will likely develop intestinal issues.

Live foods like daphnia are excellent; brine shrimp but not in excess due to the exoskeleton; blackworms as treats. If you're in a warmish climate, small ants, mosquito larvae [these are easy to culture in warmer weather], almost any very tiny incsect or larvae.

Frozen daphnia might work; unfortunately I cannot buy this in Canada [don't ask why, it is silly]. But I can't any longer; I used to, and my small fish loved it.

I've never had much success with frozen brine shrimp, it thaws to become all mush or something, and the fish were never partial to it.

Byron.

Hmmm I have frozen Daphnia now though I am not sure where to get live ones at? Will have to check on that. Most of the insects in my area are laying low as it is turning colder. In the spring and summer I usually have a supply of Mosquito larvae. My area is bad for mosquito for some reason. I have tried frozen brine shrimp once and it was soo messy! The fish wouldn't even touch it.

That was my experience with the shrimp too. Daphnia can be cultured outdoors in the summer. Not sure any stores carry it, none here do.

Another I forgot is wingless fruit flies, highly nutritious; some stores do carry these and you can culture them indoors. I did this many years ago. Fish have to feed from the surface obviously, so this is superb for hatchets; but the Badis will surface to feed so this is a possible live food.

What about Scuds (Gammarus)??? Would those make for a good food source?? I am looking into some cultures for Daphnia now. Some ppl have culture in the house. Here is once place that sells a starter kit for Daphnia culture and tells ya how to keep it going. How To Culture Live Daphnia. Would that actually work?
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I've not tried it, but presumably it works. And gammarus prob good if small...I gather these eat mosquito larvae so they may be large?

My understanding of Scuds is that they only get to about 1cm.
They live on decaying plants and detritus also eating algae and other microorganisms