Pet Forum / Aquaria / General / June 2005

Badis have recently been re-classified so it's not
possible to say with any certainty what species you have.
The commonest species found for sale are the Scarlet Badis
(Dario dario) and the Red or Burmese badis (Badis ruber).

Whichever you have, care is similar to dwarf cichlids
except the males guard the eggs in a cave or nook. I found them
easy to keep and breed if a little shy.
They can be trained to eat from your fingers and will be reluctant
to accept anything but live or frozen food. I fed mine on whiteworm,
grindalworm, earthworm and frozen bloodworm.

The females have a rounder belly profile and the males are larger
and more colourful. When guarding eggs the male B. ruber turns
coal-black.

A 3ft tank is plenty big enough for a small colony of two males and
four or five females. If you want to raise fry then you need to remove
all but the brooding male when he has eggs and remove him when
the fry start to roam around the tank. Raise the fry on microworm,
bbs, grindal and finally on to the same as adults.

http://swedish.naturalhistory.museum/ve/pisces/badipage.shtml.en

Some pictures of my B. ruber:

http://www.ibrox.freeserve.co.uk/images/badis_male.jpg
http://www.ibrox.freeserve.co.uk/images/badisfemale.jpg
http://www.ibrox.freeserve.co.uk/images/badis_juv.jpg

Regards

--
Graham Ramsay
Secretary
Fair City Aquarist Society