rm
Passport
- Grows to
- 2 cm (0.8")
- Lives
- 3–4 years
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Care
- Intermediate
- Swims
- On the bottom
- Keep
- One is fine
- Water
- 18–26 °C (64–79 °F)
India
Care requirements
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On record for Scarlet Badis: adult size, lifespan, minimum tank, temperature, ph, hardness, minimum group, diet, care level, swim level, tank length.
A figure that is not on record is left out rather than guessed. One marked Suggested comes from keeping knowledge rather than a page.
- Minimum tank 19 L / 5.0 US gal
- pH 6.5–8.5
- Hardness 1–15 dGH
- Diet micropredator
- Tank length 45 cm minimum
Care notes written from general aquarium knowledge, not from the cited sources.
About
Scarlet badis are among the smallest freshwater fish you can buy, and a conditioned male is a deep glowing red crossed by pale blue bars, with blue-edged fins he flares at rivals. For a fish barely longer than a fingernail it's a remarkable thing.
They're not a community fish, and the reasons are size and diet rather than temperament. They're too small to compete for food with anything ordinary, and they're fussy micropredators that frequently refuse dried food outright.
Females are plain grey-brown and much less often stocked, so shops usually sell males only. That matters if you want more than one, because males hold territories and spar constantly.
Tank setup
Give your scarlet badis a small, densely planted, quiet tank. A species tank or one shared with dwarf shrimp and nothing else is where they do well.
Plant it thickly and add wood, leaf litter and caves. Males claim small territories and defend them, so the tank needs to be broken up into as many defensible corners as possible.
Keep the flow very low. They're weak swimmers that pick their way through vegetation rather than swimming across open water.
Keep the light dim. They're shy and they colour up under shade.
Soft to moderately hard water suits them; they're not blackwater specialists but they do want it stable.
Feeding
This is the difficulty with the species and the reason most of them die.
Scarlet badis are micropredators that hunt live prey, and a great many refuse flake and pellets completely. Feeding them is a commitment to live and frozen food.
Feed baby brine shrimp, microworm, grindal worm, daphnia, cyclops and small frozen bloodworm. Live food is what they respond to best and what settles newly bought fish.
A mature planted tank with a population of microfauna does a lot of the work for you.
Avoid: buying them expecting to feed flake, and avoid tank mates fast enough to take food first.
Filtration and flow
A sponge filter, run gently. They're small, weak swimmers and fry will appear.
Small, regular changes keep a little tank from drifting, which is what they mind most.
Guard any intake. There's no such thing as a safe open pipe at this size.
With plants
Scarlet badis are entirely safe with plants and need a heavily planted tank.
Dense growth is what turns a hidden, colourless fish into a visible, displaying one. It also divides the floor into territories, which reduces fighting between males.
Moss holds the micro-life that both adults and fry pick at, and it's worth adding for that alone.
Health
They're reasonably hardy once feeding and often arrive thin and stressed. The first fortnight on live food is what determines how they do.
Check the belly. A hollow scarlet badis is starving rather than sick, and the answer is live food rather than medication.
Persistent hiding usually means too few territories, too bright a tank, or tank mates that are too much for them.
Breeding
They spawn in caves and dense cover, with the male displaying vigorously to draw a female into his territory.
The pair spawns inside, and the male guards the site afterwards. Broods are small, which suits a fish that holds a small territory.
Fry are minute and need infusoria or the microfauna of a mature planted tank before they can take baby brine shrimp. In a well-established species tank a few survive without any intervention, which is the usual way people end up with more.
Tank mates
Avoid51
- Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlid Agassiz's Dwarf Cichlid grows to 5 cm against Scarlet Badis at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Angelfish Angelfish grows to 15 cm against Scarlet Badis at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Bala Shark Bala Shark grows to 35 cm against Scarlet Badis at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Betta Betta grows to 7 cm against Scarlet Badis at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
- Black Skirt Tetra Black Skirt Tetra grows to 6 cm against Scarlet Badis at 2 cm, big enough to eat it.
Only with care17
- Serpae Tetra Serpae Tetra is noticeably larger than Scarlet Badis and may bully it or outcompete it at feeding time.
- Amano Shrimp Scarlet Badis is small enough to leave adult Amano Shrimp alone, but will still take shrimplets.
- Bamboo Shrimp Scarlet Badis is small enough to leave adult Bamboo Shrimp alone, but will still take shrimplets.
- Blue Bolt Shrimp Scarlet Badis is small enough to leave adult Blue Bolt Shrimp alone, but will still take shrimplets.
- Blue Dream Shrimp Scarlet Badis is small enough to leave adult Blue Dream Shrimp alone, but will still take shrimplets.
40 species are not covered at all, so they could not be judged either way.