Can Scarlet Badis & spotted blue-eye rainbowfish live together in a 20 gal. aquarium

[Karen B.]

Greetings Nerms!

I am moving my apistogramma cacatuoides to a 20 gallons long tank, so I have a 20 gallons high to fill now! 😁

It’s heated, planted, cycled, around 0-0-20. pH around 7, kh low to middle and gh high.

I was wondering if I can keep Scarlet Badis and spotted blue-eye rainbowfish together? If yes, how many of each species?

Can I add anothing else? Any centerfish?

I love corydoras but I will be using gravel (CarinSea peace river gravel) so I think it’s not exactly recommended. Any other bottom dweller could do? 

So there, shoot away your suggestions. 

I do not want any livebearer.

Instead of the 2, I have also been thinking about pea puffer as I could finally give them the space (6 in a 20 gallons high), but I don’t do well when fish are agressive so that scares me a little 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Hey @Karen B.! While I don’t have insight specifically to the Scarlet Badis/Rainbow question, I do have some thoughts regarding some of the other topics. 
-Scarlet Badis, as documented here on the forum by other keepers, basically must have live foods so definitely keep that in mind. They’re absolutely beautiful fish, but considering I don’t have a bunch of worm cultures going they’re out of my realm at the current point in time. 
-Cory’s have done fine for me on gravel substrate. I gave Cory’s in several of my tanks, and all of them are on gravel. I would however recommend a more smooth gravel for them. Cory has talked about finding them in the wild on basically every substrate imaginable 

-Pea Puffers, in my opinion, can be super fun. I have a group of 6 in a 29 with 2 (small) male Platy’s. The Platy’s were born in that tank and were the last of the fry that I couldn’t get out. I added the Pea’s thinking that the fry wouldn’t survive, but alas, here we are. I think it is to my advantage that they all essentially grew up together, but just remember that because “the internet said so” doesn’t always make it true. 
 

Best of luck on your new tank! The planning, sourcing, and watching your tank you’ve dreamed up come to fruition is arguably the most fun part. 

[Guppysnail]

I think they will be fine together. 
There is a link below my post to my journal. I try to document anything unique I see. I show videos of eating patterns, The aggression that happened when they were breeding. The aggression is not bad with space to run. It becomes a high speed chase rather than squabbles. I have all 8 I started with and have seen zero injuries or nipped fins. 
My scarlet badis will eat Live baby brine but not greedily. They hunt the substrate. Until the live food hits the substrate or falls on an object they don’t eat it. They do not catch food floating in water often. Grindal worms are a staple for mine. They try to eat white worms but are not big enough unless it’s a baby white worm. Microworms are also good but a bit to small to be a main course but give variety. They do not eat anything not living. I do have neocaridina shrimp and scuds in the tank. They are only large enough to eat the babies but it gives them environmental enrichment so they are not bored and picking at each other. 
I keep 8 scarlet badis in a 20 long with lots of plants and structures and 10 panda corydora, shrimp and nerites. They hang out with my pandas. Very friendly to them. They are friendly to everything and even to each other most of the time.  Each of the dominant males stake out a territory of approximately 8-10 square inches along the glass. They go all over the tank but that is their territory with plants and structures to break sight lines to defend. They stay closer to the floor. In a 20 high the MAX I would try is 5-6. 
They do not like super bright lights so a lot of low light plants and some floaters. They like to be under large leaves and hang out in anubias much more than Java fern or moss. you can see my tank set up photos and videos in my scarlet badis journal. 
They should be fine with rainbows since they are great with panda friends but I have never kept them together. 
Other tank mates would be mystery snails and nerite snails. I would stay away from shyer snails like livebearing snails. The nerites are active at night and mystery snail antenna are to large. The livebearing snails will get antenna eaten and be stressed. I would stay away from high energy schooling fish. They are small so I would avoid larger centerpieces. Definitely neocaridina shrimp for the added food source and environmental enrichment. I would be leary of a nano or ghost shrimp as Scarlets are small. 
They like their space empty. They do not mind occasional incursions by the pandas but get testy when the pandas are in their space to long and start pacing a bit. 
I hope that helps. Good luck looking forward to seeing your tank. 

Edit to add I have 5 tanks of corydora all on gravel. But it must be kept VERY clean. They do great and breed fine. 
 

Also aggressive fish freak me out. I do not like them. I do not consider these as aggressive at all more like boys on a playground. This would change without enough space to very aggressive to each other. Space makes them peaceful. They are nano tank size but in a nano tank I think it would be more like a murder spree. 
 

Edited November 8, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Karen B.]

On 11/8/2022 at 6:26 AM, Guppysnail said:

I think they will be fine together. 
There is a link below my post to my journal. I try to document anything unique I see. I show videos of eating patterns, The aggression that happened when they were breeding. The aggression is not bad with space to run. It becomes a high speed chase rather than squabbles. I have all 8 I started with and have seen zero injuries or nipped fins. 
My scarlet badis will eat Live baby brine but not greedily. They hunt the substrate. Until the live food hits the substrate or falls on an object they don’t eat it. They do not catch food floating in water often. Grindal worms are a staple for mine. They try to eat white worms but are not big enough unless it’s a baby white worm. Microworms are also good but a bit to small to be a main course but give variety. They do not eat anything not living. I do have neocaridina shrimp and scuds in the tank. They are only large enough to eat the babies but it gives them environmental enrichment so they are not bored and picking at each other. 
I keep 8 scarlet badis in a 20 long with lots of plants and structures and 10 panda corydora, shrimp and nerites. They hang out with my pandas. Very friendly to them. They are friendly to everything and even to each other most of the time.  Each of the dominant males stake out a territory of approximately 8-10 square inches along the glass. They go all over the tank but that is their territory with plants and structures to break sight lines to defend. They stay closer to the floor. In a 20 high the MAX I would try is 5-6. 
They do not like super bright lights so a lot of low light plants and some floaters. They like to be under large leaves and hang out in anubias much more than Java fern or moss. you can see my tank set up photos and videos in my scarlet badis journal. 
They should be fine with rainbows since they are great with panda friends but I have never kept them together. 
Other tank mates would be mystery snails and nerite snails. I would stay away from shyer snails like livebearing snails. The nerites are active at night and mystery snail antenna are to large. The livebearing snails will get antenna eaten and be stressed. I would stay away from high energy schooling fish. They are small so I would avoid larger centerpieces. Definitely neocaridina shrimp for the added food source and environmental enrichment. I would be leary of a nano or ghost shrimp as Scarlets are small. 
They like their space empty. They do not mind occasional incursions by the pandas but get testy when the pandas are in their space to long and start pacing a bit. 
I hope that helps. Good luck looking forward to seeing your tank. 

Edit to add I have 5 tanks of corydora all on gravel. But it must be kept VERY clean. They do great and breed fine. 
 

Also aggressive fish freak me out. I do not like them. I do not consider these as aggressive at all more like boys on a playground. This would change without enough space to very aggressive to each other. Space makes them peaceful. They are nano tank size but in a nano tank I think it would be more like a murder spree. 
 

I looked at your SB page. They are so cute and adorable!!! I love how they swim, and how they interact with each other & the panda cory.  
But I admit the live food might be a problem for me. I have yet to find any place with live culture (I live in Québec)

Thank you so much for all the information. I have corydoras on sand and would feel ok on some sort of gravel but the one I will be using seem a bit sharp for them. Food for tought I guess!

[Karen B.]

On 11/7/2022 at 8:35 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said:

Hey @Karen B.! While I don’t have insight specifically to the Scarlet Badis/Rainbow question, I do have some thoughts regarding some of the other topics. 
-Scarlet Badis, as documented here on the forum by other keepers, basically must have live foods so definitely keep that in mind. They’re absolutely beautiful fish, but considering I don’t have a bunch of worm cultures going they’re out of my realm at the current point in time. 
-Cory’s have done fine for me on gravel substrate. I gave Cory’s in several of my tanks, and all of them are on gravel. I would however recommend a more smooth gravel for them. Cory has talked about finding them in the wild on basically every substrate imaginable 

-Pea Puffers, in my opinion, can be super fun. I have a group of 6 in a 29 with 2 (small) male Platy’s. The Platy’s were born in that tank and were the last of the fry that I couldn’t get out. I added the Pea’s thinking that the fry wouldn’t survive, but alas, here we are. I think it is to my advantage that they all essentially grew up together, but just remember that because “the internet said so” doesn’t always make it true. 
 

Best of luck on your new tank! The planning, sourcing, and watching your tank you’ve dreamed up come to fruition is arguably the most fun part. 

Thank you for your insight! I do not have any live worm cultures nor do I think I would have the dedication to actually commit to it. That’s something I didn’t consider.

My cory are on sands, and I do have another type of gravel but the one I will be using in this tank seem a bit small and sharp. I would have my doubts.

I have always wanted Pea puffers. Never had the place (until now) to seriously consider them. Now with a 20 high, I think it would be acceptable for 5-6? What do you feed them? As I have Apistogramma Cacatuoides already on frozen live food like blood worms, Daphnia and Brine Shrimps, it wouldn’t be a big change to my feeding routine. And I do have pest snails so no problems there either!

I do like gathering information but I am so anxious and afraid to not do the right thing that I can’t say I really enjoy the process of choosing my next fish. Add to that that I am a libra, decisions in general are hard to take. And I am not super lucky so far - even fish that are supposed to be really peaceful were such a nightmare and agressive I had to give them away.

Edited November 9, 2022 by Karen B.

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@Karen B. The gravel in the picture seems fine to me for Corydora’s, but again I’m a big fan of “I don’t trust the internet and I want to see for myself”. I have a group of Cory’s (that I bred) on substrate that I believe is more sharp than the picture and they’re doing just fine. That being said, I bred them, so I didn’t necessarily feel bad “seeing for myself” if it would work. 
 

My Pea’s get fed frozen bloodworms and a mix of pest and Ramshorn snails. While it may not be the “absolute best” diet, it works for me, and over 1 year plus I haven’t noticed any detrimental affects. Sure, I would love to have more live foods for them, but it works for me and if it’s not broken I don’t fix it. I’ve often thought about bringing my group of 6 to 10 or 12 or 15, but again, it’s not broken so I don’t fix it. If I had a 20 gallon open for them I would start with 6 and see how it goes and take it from there. 
 

Hope this helps. Cheers!