As some of my previous posts will show, I have put together a few well planted and aquascaped tanks with wooden architecture.
It was rewarding making them up and the fish introduced into the tanks seem to love them.
However there are some problems.
1st is that the fish seem to be out of view for most of the day hiding behind the plants etc at the back of the tank, even though there's a good amount of free swimming space at the front. It often look like an empty tank without inhabitants, except for the shrimp that is.
Next is difficulty of cleaning the tanks without disturbing the scape architecture. Access to most of the tank substrate and bottom is hindered for use of the many tools needed such as siphons, scissors etc
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY ----- The capture of fish is almost impossible.
For instance I have the very lovely Scarlett Badis in 3 tanks. It was always my intention to breed them for resale and that bit, at least has been successful in that ambition. Partially though.
Scarlett's are known to be in league with the devil, or at least in living up to the Baddies implication.
The initial pair got together quite quickly and the male was seen dancing around the female. Then there was a period when neither of them came out of the bottom of the wood hideaway they chose. After a while I saw fry appear. I was aware that Badis are known to be unfriendly to females and even fry after a while but I just couldn't catch any of them, either the parents or fry.
Eventually I managed to rescue a couple of fry and put them in another Badis-free tank.
I never saw the female ever again so I presume she was killed and eaten by the male.
I then bought another pair so that I could add them into the breeding plans. Same thing happened. In this case though the tank was smaller and had little in it to make it difficult as far as catching them went. However, as it's not possible to watch the tank full time, it was uncertain as to when or if breeding had taken place so I left things alone for nearly 3 weeks. It became apparent that the female had once again disappeared so I searched and found no sign of her. No fry were seen either so I had a tank with a single male Badis in it. I partitioned the tank with a top to bottom - side to side piece of thick filter foam and left the remaining male Badis in one part and placed the moss from the tank into the other half hoping that some eggs had been deposited in it.
Yeahhhh. That worked. I have seen at least a couple of fry so await to see if they are male or female.
I'm now left with questions. Do I bother with this hopeless task any further? The fish are rarely ever seen as they all seem to hide for most of then time, and of course they eat each other.
![scarlet-badis[1].jpg](https://www.fishforums.net/attachments/scarlet-badis-1-jpg.166799/ "scarlet-badis[1].jpg")
It was rewarding making them up and the fish introduced into the tanks seem to love them.
However there are some problems.
1st is that the fish seem to be out of view for most of the day hiding behind the plants etc at the back of the tank, even though there's a good amount of free swimming space at the front. It often look like an empty tank without inhabitants, except for the shrimp that is.
Next is difficulty of cleaning the tanks without disturbing the scape architecture. Access to most of the tank substrate and bottom is hindered for use of the many tools needed such as siphons, scissors etc
AND MOST IMPORTANTLY ----- The capture of fish is almost impossible.
For instance I have the very lovely Scarlett Badis in 3 tanks. It was always my intention to breed them for resale and that bit, at least has been successful in that ambition. Partially though.
Scarlett's are known to be in league with the devil, or at least in living up to the Baddies implication.
The initial pair got together quite quickly and the male was seen dancing around the female. Then there was a period when neither of them came out of the bottom of the wood hideaway they chose. After a while I saw fry appear. I was aware that Badis are known to be unfriendly to females and even fry after a while but I just couldn't catch any of them, either the parents or fry.
Eventually I managed to rescue a couple of fry and put them in another Badis-free tank.
I never saw the female ever again so I presume she was killed and eaten by the male.
I then bought another pair so that I could add them into the breeding plans. Same thing happened. In this case though the tank was smaller and had little in it to make it difficult as far as catching them went. However, as it's not possible to watch the tank full time, it was uncertain as to when or if breeding had taken place so I left things alone for nearly 3 weeks. It became apparent that the female had once again disappeared so I searched and found no sign of her. No fry were seen either so I had a tank with a single male Badis in it. I partitioned the tank with a top to bottom - side to side piece of thick filter foam and left the remaining male Badis in one part and placed the moss from the tank into the other half hoping that some eggs had been deposited in it.
Yeahhhh. That worked. I have seen at least a couple of fry so await to see if they are male or female.
I'm now left with questions. Do I bother with this hopeless task any further? The fish are rarely ever seen as they all seem to hide for most of then time, and of course they eat each other.
