Re: Badis sp. "Scarlet"

["David A. Youngker" <nestor10@mindspring.com>]

From: Ken Roese
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 4:22 PM

> P.S. The badis is classified as a perch.  According to
> what I've read, it used to be considered a cichlid but
> was given it's own family (Badidae) in the Perciformes
> order.

They're known as "Indian Blue Perch", coming from the Surinam. (Now, I
guess, the "Indian Scarlet Perch" in this form  ;-)  )

At first, I thought I'd stumbled across an Apistogramma I hadn't seen
before. Drove the List nuts trying to ID it as the shop didn't have a clue.
In fact, the original page I used while trying to ID it is still up at
http://www.mindspring.com/~nestor10/apisto_or_no.htm . A young enthusiast
from Europe actually IDed it from that picture - almost as quickly as he'd
seen it.

If I remember correctly, it also points out the differences in the sexes.

Maintenance temp of 74- 79F, 23- 26C, and a breeding temp of 78- 86F, 26-
30C. I kept them in the 78- 80F range myself.

Medium hard water, 140- 220 ppm (mine was 140), pH close to neutral (mine
was 7.4), slow- medium circulation (I used a Penguin 110 on a 20-gal long).

The ones I had preferred live foods and were a bear to break into freeze-
dried. They never really became enthusiastic about flakes. The fry seem to
refuse anything that isn't moving under its own power. Freshly- hatched
Artemia work just fine, and adults will take mature Artemia dead or alive.

They need a lot of cover, being a fairly shy fish. Given a lot of places to
hide, they become much more active and willing to stay in the open. Dither
fish don't seem to make a real difference except at feeding time. Given a
little competition, the Badis eat really well.

A couple needs about two feet of tank floor to interact well. There should
be some caves about the bottom also. They are definite cave- spawners with a
twist. Like Anabantids, the male guards the nest until the fry have absorbed
the yolk sacs and are easily free- swimming. Then they are simply ignored -
by both parents. Neither seem cannibalistic.

The male will guard the nesting site with some vigor, rivaling the behavior
of a true cichlid. It is for this reason the female should have a ready
escape site - once the brood is set, the male doesn't care for any more
company until he is free of this batch and ready for another. Other fish may
have a hard time getting near the site any time after the male has staked it
out. Defensive attacks consist mainly of quick, intense rushes toward the
offender without any real nipping. Another male may trigger a bout of
"shadow boxing", with the two flaring and jockeying for position then
perhaps a little "face sucking" among friends. It may look innocent, but the
lip- locks can get pretty serious.

Don't make the mistake of placing any shrimp you'd like to keep, or much
smaller fish, in the same tank. They will waste little time in literally
blinding the target, then ripping it to shreds for devouring it. Given a
large enough group, it's almost like a pack of wolves on the hunt. One will
make the disabling thrust, then suddenly everyone has bloodlust. Given what
I'd seen of them until that point, imagine my surprise when half a dozen
Bumblebee shrimp (at $4 US each) were all in pieces within fifteen minutes.
Well, I thought they'd be all right, as they were 3/4 the length of the
Badis.

I saw them do the same thing to a couple of their own "teenaged" males who
thought they'd wrest a cave from an old- timer. And again, once the
disabling blow was thrown, everyone took a sudden interest in the shredding
process...

-Y-

David A. Youngker
nestor10@mindspring.com

PS of my own -

I _did_ let Nature take its course, and finally had to get rid of the little
"fry factories". I believe David Sanchez still has a pond or two full of my
original stock...




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