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When these were imported for the first time, quite a few years ago, they were known as Badis badis bengalensis (Scarlet Badis). A really stunning little fish but sadly, as was the case with Rams for a while, the early shipments were all males. I had previously looked through countless aquariums at various aquatic centres, hoping that a female had "sneaked through" in an imported batch! After being frustrated in my search over the years I tried an aquatic shop that I visit fairly infrequently. I eventually found a rather murky tank (hence my infrequent visits!) with some plain, beige fish in it, as well as the clearly colourful males. I watched the tank for about 10 minutes to observe their behaviour to make sure that they weren't subdominant males who had lost their colour. When I felt that I had dropped lucky at last, I got a nice male and 3 lovely dull females! I put them in my most densely planted tank which happened to be a 36" tank. It had just a gentle current and the Temp. was 75F. Within a couple of hours they looked much better as they pecked at all the micro-organisms in the floating plants (Riccia, Indian Fern and African Frogbit). I kept my eye on the females just in case, but I was pretty confident by now, that I had three females.  Apart from what they found naturally, I gave them some chopped up frozen bloodworm and some Daphnia from my garden pond for their first feeds. As flake is not accepted, some other foods to try are mosquito larvae, small mysis shrimp, cyclops and brine shrimp. Courtship activity... For the first few weeks or so, the only activity was the male chasing different females (quite aggressively) and all of them beating a hasty retreat into the plants or wherever to hide! During this period I did lose one of my females. A solitary fry! .... After around 5 weeks, I spotted a solitary fry. It was approximately 4 mms long and was a dull beige colour. It was moving around just under the floating plants, snapping at some tiny Daphnia which I had just put in. At this point, unlike a photo I had seen on a website, I had not seen any tiny fry clinging to the glass sides or to any plants. (Probably due to the adults having eaten them!) The recommended tactic of moving the adults after spawning is fine, but first I have to see them spawn! Sadly, up to this point, I hadn't been lucky enough to see this happen. As per usual with many species, I always see if fry can survive in any reasonable numbers when they are left with the adults. In this case, with my total of one fry, it's very obvious that many tiny fry had suffered due to the attentions of the adults. Moving any fry seemed easier than moving the adults round after each spawning, so it was time to use my other procedure...... "Lucky dip" technique I therefore started to do what I did with my Celestial Pearl Danios;- rescue any fry and put them into a growing on tank with plenty plants and mature water. As I wasn't seeing any spawning, I simply dipped a plastic see through beaker into the thick layer of top plants. I did this every 3 or 4 days and occasionally got 2 or 3 very tiny "pinhead" fry in one scoop, which were put in a floating half-toffee jar and later transferred to a 24" planted tank. This did at least confirm that many fry were there, but obviously not surviving with the three adults. Soon after employing this tactic, I was fortunate enough to see a spawning and all the procedures as they happened. The spawning stages... In the fifth week his attentions seemed to be succeeding with one particular female. He was darting back and forth and up and down in front of her and she made no move to dash away. A significant "consent" seems to be that she continues to look at him rather than quickly turn tail.  By now his fins seemed to have a stronger intensity as he flares them in front of her. The female's appearance also changed, as she now had some darker, bolder body stripes, instead of the plain buff/beige colour. Having not "done a runner" and as if to further show her consent, she went into the Java Moss before him.....  He immediately joined her in the Moss and after sidling round to the side of her, they circled a few times and then he curled his body round her in a spawning embrace.....  She was repeatedly attracted back to his area and there were further matings, but they weren't all in the Java Moss. During this session, there were also two embraces in the floating plants and even one in mid-water when they couldn't quite find enough satisfactory Java Fern roots to use.  When the spawning activity had finished, he then guarded the area around the Moss. His idea of this "area" was quite extensive! Even the Otocinclus who didn't come too near or seem in the least bit threatening, was driven off. I was thinking at this point that perhaps a 36" tank was ideal, otherwise he would be in permanent attack mode!  Growing on.. All the newly born fry were "glassed" from the floating plants and put in a plastic tub, where they were fed Microworm and Walterworm before being put into a spare mature planted tank. Here they would hopefully find all the natural micro-organisms they needed, as well as continued feeds of Microworm. For two weeks I just didn't see them, then gradually these tiny 4mm beige, plain fry began to appear in and around the Java Fern on the Bogwood. They were very slow moving and when against the Bogwood were very well camouflaged!  When the fry had developed a little more, I judged it safe to re-introduce them back into the main tank with the adults. The feeds now were Daphnia and some chopped up frozen Bloodworm which they soon adapted to. One food which even the youngsters go mad for is glassworm! When I give a "mixed" pond feed, Daphnia is almost completely ignored until all the glassworm are eaten!  This method of building a colony up, worked quite well up to a certain point, but there seemed to be no sign of spawning activity for a few weeks, so temporarily no more fry were being glassed in the floating plants. In the meantime the juveniles were growing on nicely and the males' colour was just beginning to show through. At this stage the dominant male hadn't been overly aggressive towards any potential rivals, which meant the community of Dario was quite settled. This young male is now just lacking his lovely turquoise blue extended pectoral fins.  After a brief break it was however business as normal, as the male spawned with one of the two adult females in the Java Moss near the front of the tank. Three days later and I dipped my glass in the floating plants and despite there being 15 or so potential predators, 4 fry had made it to the sanctuary of the plants. As the weeks went by, I continued to "dip" fry from the top plants and the juvenile colony of Dario gradually increased. In some species, sex ratios are skewed but I could now see that I had a ratio of around two females for each male, which is very acceptable for selling and swapping. Update As well as being a stunningly beautiful little fish, it's behaviour keeps the aquarist entertained! The courtship and defence of it's egg territory are fascinating to watch and now that the adults, juveniles and young fry have settled into a comfortable existence together, there is always some interest in the tank. Also there is still the pleasant surprise of spotting the odd smaller fry which has survived in the floating plants. As my juvenile numbers increased, I have to say that the sex ratio changed;- I had many more males. It's difficult to read too much into this, as it is just luck which fry I happen to glass out of the top plants. However, with more males to compete with each other, there is the bonus of more colourful confrontations where they try to outshine each other with fins flaring and a superb intensity of colour.  At this point I was happy with the colony numbers and so let nature takes it's course, but found in any case that the fish seemed to have a seasonal break during our winter. From the end of October I saw no more courtship activity or spawnings. Significantly this lull also coincided with the fact that they were not getting any Daphnia or Glassworm from my pond. Perhaps the live food was a stimulus and helped to bring them into breeding condition? In hindsight, I am pleased that the well planted, 36" tank was the only one available, as I think the combination of tank size and plant cover helps to create this relative ease of living together. I really enjoyed breeding this fish and the males, although small, are absolutely stunning. Copyright. Text and photos; Ivor Hilton |
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