15g scarlet badis, guppies and madacascar rainbowfish, am I in over my head?

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rookiefishguy

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Hi All,

I recently made the move of upgrading my 5g tank that had 4 male guppies and mystery snail and 3 RCS to a 15g tank that I moved all the filter media, substrate etc over to for the beneficial bacteria. I gave the tank a few weeks to catch up and took a trip to a massive fish store about an hour away. I was quickly star struck by their massive inventory and blindly bought the fish that were recommended to me which were 4 scarlet badis and 2 (a male and a female) Madagascar rainbowfish.

They've been added to the tank and so far it has been about a week. I was not aware that scarlet badis typically only eat live food so it has been a bit of a learning curve and i'm hoping to train them to eat flakes/pellets (any recommendations on how is appreciated).

My second question, I'm wondering if the rainbowfish may be a bit to large for the 15g. The female seems to be fine and even seems to "school" with the guppies, however the male is an absolute monster in the tank. Sadly I witnessed him murder one of my RCS in cold blood, and he seems to chase the guppies around quite a bit. I have a few days left before i can return him and was wondering if its something that could calm down or if I was lead astray and bought a bit too much fish for my tank? I wanted some sort of "peaceful" centerpiece fish
 
You got screwed over by the shop. Badis should be kept in a single species tank because of their shy nature and food requirements. They don't normally take dry food and require live and frozen foods. On rare occasions some might take a bit of dry food but it's not a common occurrence.

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Madagascan rainbowfish need a tank that is at least 3 feet long so they can swim. The fish grow to about 4 inches and are active swimmers. They do best in groups of at least 6 (preferably 10) and you try to have even numbers of males (eg: 2males, 4 males, 6 males) that are the same size. If you get a big male and a small male, the bigger one will bully the smaller one. The big males will also bully male fish from different species (guppies).

Rainbowfish will eat shrimp and anything small enough to fit in their mouth.

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I don't' know how big your tank (length x width x height) is but I would probably get rid of the Badis and Madagascan rainbows, and look at Melanotaenia praecox or another small species of rainbowfish. Alternatively put the Badis in your smaller tank by themselves.

The following link has all the known species of Australian and New Guinea rainbowfish and you can look through it and see if any of them interest you. The smaller species like M. praecox would be fine in a tank that is at least 30 inches long, and will be less likely to cause problems to the shrimp and guppies. Just like the Madagascan rainbows, keep them in groups of at least 6 and have even numbers of males.
 
You got screwed over by the shop. Badis should be kept in a single species tank because of their shy nature and food requirements. They don't normally take dry food and require live and frozen foods. On rare occasions some might take a bit of dry food but it's not a common occurrence.

------------------
Madagascan rainbowfish need a tank that is at least 3 feet long so they can swim. The fish grow to about 4 inches and are active swimmers. They do best in groups of at least 6 (preferably 10) and you try to have even numbers of males (eg: 2males, 4 males, 6 males) that are the same size. If you get a big male and a small male, the bigger one will bully the smaller one. The big males will also bully male fish from different species (guppies).

Rainbowfish will eat shrimp and anything small enough to fit in their mouth.

------------------
I don't' know how big your tank (length x width x height) is but I would probably get rid of the Badis and Madagascan rainbows, and look at Melanotaenia praecox or another small species of rainbowfish. Alternatively put the Badis in your smaller tank by themselves.

The following link has all the known species of Australian and New Guinea rainbowfish and you can look through it and see if any of them interest you. The smaller species like M. praecox would be fine in a tank that is at least 30 inches long, and will be less likely to cause problems to the shrimp and guppies. Just like the Madagascan rainbows, keep them in groups of at least 6 and have even numbers of males.
Yeah, I had a bad feeling that it was all too good to be true. So far the badis seem to be doing just fine as there's plenty of hiding places for them and they've seemed to set up their territories quickly. They also seem to not mind the guppies at all so I'm thinking I may get away with keeping them (not sure I can catch them to return or relocate them as they've found their hiding spots pretty well). Trying frozen daphnia with them for the first time as it was recommended by another store.

As for the rainbow fish, I'm going to see if I can scoop them up and return them. Its a shame because the female seems so fine with all the other fish but it wouldn't be right to keep her in a tank on her own if she grows that big. The tank is about 24 inches long (btw). I may try a much more small and peaceful schooling fish this time around.
 
A tank that is 2 foot long is the minimum size for smaller species of rainbowfish like Pseudomugil species. You could possibly try M. praecox but they really like a bit more room to move around.
 

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