Dwarf Red Badis Badis

[Sara]

Hi, I'm a new user. I have a heavily planted 55 gl tank with a fish and shrimp requirment that all be less than an inch long. So I got 6 of these little red badis badis I've heard they might be called "dario dario," I don't know for sure. Anyways I couldn't figure out what they were eating because they ignore the daphnia. Then today I'm gazing at my tank and I realize there is a huge reduction in my baby snail population! Yay! Anybody got any stories about these beautiful baby snail eatin critters? I heard they might be realated to Labyrnth fishes.

[judya]

Their behavior is more like cichlids, in aggressiveness, and ****breeding habits. A least this is the case for regular badis badis. This article says the scarlet breed somewhat differently http://www.svas.info/Newsletter/badis.html
http://www.petresources.net/fish/mis...d_bad_bur.html
They really are pretty - I saw some in a tank once and couldn't believe the colors!

[Vumeter]

Dario Darios are great! Yes they were formerly know as Scarlet Badis or Badis Bengalensis but have been recently been renamed to Dario Dario.

I've had 2 males for almost a year. They are slightly territorial towards each other but it's only chasing - no nipped fins or anything. And very shy for the most part and should be kept to their own tank as most of the time other fish will out compete them for food - no aggression towards other species. Mine have been happy taking frozen daphnia and live brine shrimp. Not sure why they haven't taken yours. I have yet to see them take any prepared foods like flake. I can't comment on the snails because I don't have any (prior to the darios), but they're leaving my freshwater lippetts alone.

Hopefully you were able to get some females. They're a rarity as most LFS only get males or only a few females amongst 40-50 males. I've only recently have been able to obtain some females so no breeding just yet. Though I did see the 2 males get into a betta like mating ball in some java moss a few months back.

Good luck.