Scarlet Badis (Dario Dario)

[AquaStudent]

Hey y'all!

I've got a fairly heavily planted 10 gallon and a newly set up 5 gallon tank. The 10 gallon contains a school of neon tetras and a pair of oto catfish. The 5 gallon has a dozen or so Red Cherry Shrimp. I was looking into stocking one or both tanks with some Scarlet Badis (Dario Dario) fish. Does anybody have any first hand experience with them? Will they be a threat to my shrimp (or the shrimplets)?

In the 5 gallon with the Cherries I was thinking 2 pairs of males and females (hoping to get my hands on some females...i know they are very rare) or in the 10 gallon 3 pairs.

I've been trying to read up on live cultures and how to raise them but does anybody know which ones would be best? I attend school in a very rural setting 9 months out of the year with a very harsh winter so I won't really have access to decent pet stores or online resources for a couple months of the year. I want to be as self sustaining as possible.

Some cultures I have been looking into include Microworms, White worms, Daphnia, Grindal worms (not sure about the smell), and BBS. I'm working on also having access to frozen foods (I mean it's below zero for a quarter of the year, most everything else is frozen, why not fish food?)

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mscichlid]

The baby shrimp may have trouble with the dario. Even if fish cannot fit the adult shrimp in their mouths, I suspect they may attemp to badger them until they can.

But I don't know for sure...

Microworms and baby brine shrimp are the easiest in my opinion. Daphnia can be an alternative. It would be easier to get your stock from a vernal pool and keep them in a tub outside. Just feed them watermelon rinds. With the tub you will get mosquito larve and a few blood worms. And possibly dragonfly larve, of which you will have to be careful as they eat fry. Just before it gets cold you could start freezing some of your culture for use over the winter. The daphnia should start back up when it gets warm.

See if there is a aquarium club close to you. You'll have to join of course to reap the benefits of being a member. Perhaps folks would be willing to send you starter cultures. And then there is Aquabid.com...be careful there because you could spend way more than you want and or run into some unscrupilous folks. Don't buy fish or plants from sources outside of the US though. The seller is supposed to get permits for entry into the US and they usually don't and you will end up with an empty box after customs destroys your order.

Here is a site for culturing:
http://faq.thekrib.com/live-food.html

I have never ordered cultures online. But here are a couple of sites for info and cultures:

http://www.livefoodcultures.com/Daphnia.html

http://www.lfscultures.com/cultures.html

Dr Fosters and Smith will ship frozen food.
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+7927+9035&pcatid=9035

Carolina Biological will ship: http://www.carolina.com/category/living+organisms/live+foods.do

Hope this helps.

 

[mchambers]

Live food, shrimp

I definitely think microworms are the easiest, but they are very small food. I think your tetras would eat them, as would any fry, but I don't know if Badis Badis would.

As far as the shrimp go, I've RCS co-existing and successfully reproducing in tanks that include German rams and Bolivian rams, so I'd think Badis Badis might be okay. I saw a German ram try to catch a shrimplet this morning, but the shrimp jumped away at the last second and the ram gave up. No guarantees, however.

 

[AquaStudent]

awesome guys thanks for the information. I'm not too worried about shrimp and Dario Dario. I think there are worse things the shrimp can be put in with. I'll look into getting live cultures when I head back to NoVa in the beginning of may. I hope to be at the meeting on May 14th.

I'm having a hard time deciding if I should strongly pursue them. I think they are really cool fish but are they worth the extra hassel of live and frozen foods? I could always go with a betta. I've been looking online for bettas (will also check Annandale SuperPets and my local Petco...surprisingly PetCo in Burke usually has some decent bettas)

Idk...what do y'all think? Will the extra effort be worth it?

 

[msjinkzd]

I think it really depends on what your goals are for the tank. The betta will absolutely eat the shrimp.

I keep dario dario with caridina cf babaulti and the adults are left alone but some of the baby shrimp are hunted.

As far as feeding, its pretty easy to keep frozen baby brine on hand to feed them and they eat it quite well. They will also often eat golden pearls.

They do relish live food, baby brine, microworms, and white worms are great choices.

 

[mscichlid]

All fish are worth the hassle. If you want them, and I think you do, go for it. You will be happy.

 

[AquaStudent]

Thanks guys. I definitely think I'll be going along with them. It's just a matter of time now.