20G Stocking? Including Scarlet Badis...

[Madjonny]

My other tank is now cycled and the 1 species I really want is red scarlet indian badis (dario dario).
They are very small and timid, slow movers and easily out competed for food.

I know they're not ideal tank mates for alot of fish but does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Dimensions are: L60cm W35cm H45cm
I would like a group of Pygmy corys, an assassin snail (to control the snails I already have acquired), then I was thinking something a little bigger like a pair of gourami... What type I'm not sure, would this stocking be ok?

 

[ncguppy830]

gouramis wouldnt wont with the badis because there bolth anabantids everything else would go well

 

[Madjonny]

gouramis wouldnt wont with the badis because there bolth anabantids everything else would go well

Got a suggestion for a bigger fish?
Everything else is really small I just think 1-2 larger fish would work well...

 

[ncguppy830]

they would have to be slow moving, a school of glass catfish could be good and now its possible to house a sparkling gourami but i dont really know. i would sticck with bottomfeeders or more badis

 

[Blondielovesfish]

A pair of Keyhole Cichlids could work.

 

[Madjonny]

A pair of Keyhole Cichlids could work.

Oooo they do look nice, never even thought of a chichlid...
I mite go see if they have some in stock today...

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Dario dario are not likely to be comfortable with any tankmates much bigger than themselves, they are shy fish. Tankmates need to be rather mellow and not much bigger than ~3cm SL.

 

[Madjonny]

I still can't decide what I would like as a bigger fish, I do like the look of keyholes and they have many at my LFS...

They also had some agassizi dwarf chichlids and they really caught my eye... I'm researching them now...
Any other suggestions?

Also in the nano fish disscussion 1m 3f of scarlet badis is acceptable in a 5g tank, so what sort of numbers could I have in a 20g? Bearing in mind that males can get aggressive with one another...

 

[Blondielovesfish]

If it is well planted then you could probably have 2-3 males and 8-10 females (more or less - depending on other stocking).

 

[Elrohirthehasty]

I've heard that both Badis badis and Dario dario are pretty picker eaters since most of them are wild caught - that they only eat live food.  If this is true, there might be other considerations before getting either fish.  That being said I have no personal experience with them, and I only heard from people at my awesome LFS.

Oh, and for what it's worth, all Apistogramma are pretty awesome!!