Best tank style for a couple badis?

[ND1990]

Going to start a badis only tank 3 or 4 and maybe a pair of Pygmy Corys. 

I know they’re a type of “shoaling” fish, but I have my eye on a 10 gallon shallow. I’m curious if they would prefer a long or if the wider tank would be better? I haven’t really seen anyone talk about it, unless I’ve missed it. 

[nabokovfan87]

 

 

There is some cool videos and setup details regarding the fish in question.  I would love to keep them! They seem really interesting. 

I would lean for the shallow tank, more floor space.

[Lennie]

Pair of pygmys would be a very bad choice if I gotta be honest. You can easily keep like 6-8 in there, but idk how badis go well with pygmys. I have a group of 20 or so (they have babies) in a 50x40x25cm tank, so it is a shallow 50 liter custom size. In the past I kept groups of 6, 10, and 16 in other tanks. Every single time the group got more crowded, the happier they seemed.

 

@Guppysnail is experienced with badis species so she may help better.
 

But for scarlet badis it seems very hard to find females from what I know and maybe 4 males can be problematic in that tank size?

Edited January 16 by Lennie

[Guppysnail]

If you are going to put more than 1 male scarlet in a small 10 gallon tank it needs to be very heavily planted with the plants grown in and lots of structure.  Here is one video of mine showing the aggression level between mature males. They are highly territorial. These are in a 20 gallon long.  

Good luck finding a female. They are incredibly hard to find.  
 

They only thrive on live food.  They eat enough commercial food to not starve to death quickly if you are lucky. 
 

I’ve had Pygmy cory for several years. If you get less than 6-8 they will be very fearful and mostly hide in your tank. It would be a disservice to them to keep only 2. They depend on their numbers to survive and feel safe in the wild.  

[ND1990]

On 1/16/2024 at 12:24 AM, Lennie said:

Pair of pygmys would be a very bad choice if I gotta be honest. You can easily keep like 6-8 in there, but idk how badis go well with pygmys. I have a group of 20 or so (they have babies) in a 50x40x25cm tank, so it is a shallow 50 liter custom size. In the past I kept groups of 6, 10, and 16 in other tanks. Every single time the group got more crowded, the happier they seemed.

 

@Guppysnail is experienced with badis species so she may help better.
 

But for scarlet badis it seems very hard to find females from what I know and maybe 4 males can be problematic in that tank size?

I’ve held Badis before in a larger community tank and they were good. Had them for 3.5 years before they died. I’m looking for info on if a shallow or long would be more ideal.

 

ill save them for another build, I’m going with my favorite in Chili Rasboras instead. Haha
 

thanks

On 1/16/2024 at 6:11 AM, Guppysnail said:

If you are going to put more than 1 male scarlet in a small 10 gallon tank it needs to be very heavily planted with the plants grown in and lots of structure.  Here is one video of mine showing the aggression level between mature males. They are highly territorial. These are in a 20 gallon long.  

Good luck finding a female. They are incredibly hard to find.  
 

They only thrive on live food.  They eat enough commercial food to not starve to death quickly if you are lucky. 
 

I’ve had Pygmy cory for several years. If you get less than 6-8 they will be very fearful and mostly hide in your tank. It would be a disservice to them to keep only 2. They depend on their numbers to survive and feel safe in the wild.  

I’ve had Badis before, so I’m familiar with them, but I’m more curious this time if they would prefer more footprint or a longer tank. When I had them in the larger tank with others they occupied one section so I’m leaning on the larger footprint with the shallow. Also yea, all of my tanks are heavy planted and lots of hiding places, I’m a big fan of wood haha 

 

ill save them for another build, I’m going with my favorite in Chili Rasboras instead. Haha

 

thanks! 

Edited January 16 by ND1990
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