Badis Badis

[ferrikins]

I managed to get hold of 3 Badis Badis, after 6 months of surching, I have had some before, but they always died with in a few months.

I want to make shore these last longer, I know they are shy, the tank is heavly planted, I have a cave I made myself, and a tude at the back, they are using the tube, well one is, but not the cave.

My quetion, do they need more hiding place's, anmd what sort of decore would you recomend, for them to hide in??

 

[fishdudein]

Hi ferrikins! I have had the best luck with my badis by using the "more is better" approach. Any of the artificial caves; tubes; clay pots; old coffee cups; strips of slate leaned against other rocks....they don't seem to be picky, and it seems like the more hiding places you give them, the less they use them and are out for you to be able to see them. Must give them comfort knowing that cover is there if they need it. I also like to get a nice growth of floating plants, something like hornwort, didiplis, anacharis, etc.

 

[ferrikins]

Thanks.

I planning on rearranging the tank, to make as many hiding place's as posible.

Sadly one is very ill, she (I think it a she), has what looks like a hugh internal bleed, as soon as I can catch her I sadly going to put her to sleep, as the bleed look very close to her heart, I've had this before with my Black-chinned Livebearers, sadly I could'nt catch them, and they had a very slow, and very painful looking death.

I feel sad that it taken so long to find these little gems, and one going to loss one already.

 

[lucky62]

Glad you were able get some , sorry one is ill , is it swimming ? maybe a few water changes would help .


Also I would have to agree with fishdudein , the more places they have to hide , the more you see them , mine even spawned in my main tank , I have somewhere between 10 to 15 survivors , and you may also see they will become accustomed to their keeper and not so shy . This has been my experience .

 

[ferrikins]

Sadly my sick looking one, has died this evening It deffinotly looks like a hugh internal bleed.

The other 2 thankfuly look ok, I hope they don't su come to the same thing.

On a brighter note my Sarlett Babis, are looking wonderful, and I've even managed to get a female.

 

[lucky62]

Sorry about your badis .


How many Scarlet Badis do you have ?

They're very small aren't they ?

 

[Michael Roth]

We had 6 scarlet badis, in with wee little stone catfish and endlers in a well (fake) planted tank, and within a week all were gone. I have a sneaking suspicion they are fairly fragile.

 

[ferrikins]

I think you maybe right Micheal, I had 6 at one point, and now down to only 3.
2 beautiful bright red males, and the little girl. Mine are about half inch at the moment. They get one great, with the guppies, and the larger Badis.

They have a small bit of wood, with moss one that they taken to.

The place I got the Badis Badis from said they where hoping to get some Scarletts in soon to. So even though it over an hour away maybe worth another visit soon.

 

[lucky62]

I don't think Scarlets can handle alot of water movement , we got one as a hitch hiker a few months back [ for free ], it last about 5 weeks , he was beautiful .

 

[fishdudein]

I have had some of the scarlets in the past. They are a very tiny fish, so small that even in a ten gallon tank I had to really look to be able to find them. I'm not sure that mixing them with any other fish (except maybe something completely harmless like a cory) would be a good idea, but this is just my opinion, and I didn't "test it out". They tend to lie around the tank waiting for some bit of food to come by (larger sp. of badis kind of do the same thing). Although they are good at hunting their prey, I think if they were housed with any type of even semi-aggressive or in any way "picky" type of fish, that they would come out the loser.

Also, I try to vary what I feed my fish: most tanks get 2 small meals a day, some type of prepared food in the morning, and a "meatier" meal in the evening, like frozen brine shrimp, fr. mysis, fr. bloodworms, fr. dried tubifex, etc. Most of the badis varieties that I have kept tend to pay no attention to any prepared foods I give them, but pig out on the evening meal. Maybe mine are spoiled, I don't know...

Hope some of this can help someone.

P.S. Lucky is right, I think, about the water flow thing...too much flow seems to stress them out (as I mentioned, they like to lay around and wait for a meal opportunity). I think their natural habitat is more slow moving streams instead of the faster current, and they have adapted to this.