Finding Food For a Pickey Scarlet Badis (Dario dario)

[TheFish]

Hello all,

Ok here's the issue. I have a single Scarlet Badis (Dario dario) that is extremely picky about what he eats. So far hes rejected X-treme flake, X-treme nano, Vibra-Bites, Bug Bites color enhancing flakes, and frozen cyclops. He does however love Baby Brine Shrimp (BBS) so i hatch very very small batches (1/32nd of a tsp) continually. Hes fed for 2-3 days then fasts during the 36 hours a new batch hatch, however hes alone in a planted tank and seems to always be finding little critters to munch on and seems perfectly healthy. If you aren't familiar with them they he is less than 3/4" long and has a truly small mouth. 

My problem is its very hard to keep BBS alive for the several days it takes for him to consume all of them even though i hatch very small batches. not only that but hes just so small that he cant consume the .5ml of BBS I usually feed. so they end up dying off and hopefully eaten by my Amano and not sucked into the sponge filter.

So here are my questions:

Does any one have any tricks to getting Darios on frozen or prepared foods?

Is there a freshwater alternative to BBS that i can feed and leave for him to hunt as he gets hungry and wont die in a matter of hours like BBS?

Can Daphnia be hatched from eggs and fed like BBS? (I know Daphnia cultures can be maintained, gut loaded and fed but i understand them to be difficult to maintain and almost certainly need a large amount of water, sun, and green water to succeed and even then they can easily crash.)

Is there a worm or small crustacean or anything like that I can culture in freshwater for him?

I know this is oddly specific but maybe others are also having the issue and I figured this group would be a great shot at getting some guidance.

 

Thanks in advance!

[Colu]

From what have read live food will be a large proportion of they're diet I would recommend starting micro worm cultures to supplement the live brine shrimp you could try and getting them to eat some frozen foods as well brine kept over a couple of days will have very low nutritional value after 24hr they have absorbed they're egg yolks unless you gut load them you can  feed them powder egg yolks spirulina powder yest powered soybean powder wheat flour

Edited April 5, 2021 by Colu

[Wingman12r]

Scarlet Badis is on my will own someday list. 

They are exclusively micro predators and rarely eat prepared foods. 

You may want to start culturing infusoria and vinegar eels to help diversify his diet.

[JoeM]

I have one badass and he eats frozen baby brine shrimp and i mix in Easy Fry and small fish food from aq.coop every few days. gobbles it up.  

[JoeM]

...just don't over feed they'll just keep eating.

[Eric R]

Blackworms and vinegar eels will survive in your aquarium, giving your badis something to hunt for. Microworms are easy to culture and add to the tank in small doses between your bbs feedings. Also, if you have any other fish, most likely they will happily eat bbs if you find that you are regularly culturing more than your badis will eat.