Scarlet Badis with Skirt Tetras?

[Chris1212]

Saw scarlet badis in the lfs today for the first time. Wow they were tiny. Really cool looking little fish and I'd love to get a couple for my 20g community but would full grown skirt tetras try and eat them? These skirts eat any type of food I put in the tank (surface, middle, substrate) but don't bother the amano shrimp we currently have.

 

[strobukm]

The skirt tetras probably won't bother the scarlet badis since they hang out at the bottom, but if you decide to get them, keep in mind they can be very finicky eaters and you will probably need to feed live food.

 

[ruud]

Hello Chris, I don't know much about skirt tetras; I believe they are about 3 inch or so, which doesn't seem to pose a problem for scarlet badis. I would not be surprised if a scarlet would chase a fish this size away from its territory. Although 3 inch... well perhaps it'll keep at bay.

I kept scarlets (Dario Dario) for years in different tanks. I tried to get a female to no avail. Visited so many stores with the impression that finally I purchased a female, but it turned out to be a subdominant maie. A couple of years ago I purchased the very similar Dario myanmar and 1 specimen turned out to be a female. I've been solely keeping this species ever since, with offspring from this particular female.

So if you are getting a pair of Dario darios, expect to get 2 males. Which is not a problem. They require about 15 by 15 inch space each and lots of broken lines of sight. Mine sometimes flare, but only for short periods of time. But I keep 1 fish per 10+ gallon to give you an idea.

The Dario is a very slow and deliberate eater. Especially the males in my opinion; but not sure how general this is to all Dario species and specimens. Only once in a community tank I was able to feed them frozen food (mysis and daphnia); perhaps because the gourami's I had back then were setting an example and/or because there was a current in that tank that made the dead food "come alive". But this may be my human interpretation.

Apart from this community tank I only succeed in feeding them live foods. But currently I only have Dario Myanmar-only tanks and hardly any water current. Will they be outcompeted? The answer so much depends on your setup. If you have a very planted tank that allows live foods to escape for a while, that might work. If you have some current, which Dario's won't appreciate very much, plants too can help in this regard.

Again, I don't think Dario's will be scared of relatively small tetra's. Will they hide, you bet. But not because they are scared. My species-only tanks have sufficient swimming space and very dim to no artificial light. They are almost always in the "bushes". The females (Dario myanmar), however, seems to be more on the edges of "bush" and open space. Males are always minding their business inside the "bush". Similar experience I have had with the male Dario dario (scarlets).

Dario dario loves still water and floating plants. They are in all layers of (species-only) tanks, and definitely not just bottom level. If you have a large, heavily planted, species-only tank, you get to see more of their natural behaviour; and they really are everywhere with a strong preference for floating plants. They can take a vertical position between the floating plants for minutes, waiting for some microorganism to pass.

Dario myanmar, on the other hand, are hardly spotted nearby floating plants and are very much living near the substrate in my (species-only) tanks.

OK, enough words for now...

 

[Chris1212]

Thanks for all of the info and replies. I also have a shy peacock gudgeon that hangs out mostly at the bottom. He eats almost anything that makes it down to him (flakes, bug bites, pellets) but the favorite seems to be the hikari vibra bites which look like little red worms. I wonder if the scarlet badi would go for those.

 

[ruud]

I had them too... no luck (believe me I tried). Darios are the absolute perfect fish to keep, except for their eating behaviors...and well, they don't move a lot. The latter is actually something I strongly prefer; I hate looking at e.g. tiger barbs going at 100 miles an hour in a tank that is too small for them.

 

[Chris1212]

Maybe I'll instead look to add another peacock gudgeon (1 currently) or honey gourami (1 currently) instead.

Thanks