# Shrimp and scarlet badis



## n25philly (Dec 12, 2013)

I was going to set up an extra 10 gallon I had for shrimp, but when I saw a local store got scarlet badis I couldn't help myself.

I planned on just getting the cheapest shrimp I could as the plan was to build a colony so I could have some live food for my apistos when they are ready to breed to help push them along. So I don't mind the badis eating shrimp as I am sure they will being kept together. 

My question is how many shrimp do you think I should get to have a good chance of them out breeding whatever the badis might eat? It's only one pair of Badis and so far no other fish are in there or planned to be added.


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## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

Depends on how many Badis there are, how much ground/plant cover you have (for shrimplets to hide, Badis will only eat the small ones) and how many berried females you can get/have.

But most say minimum to get decent breeding numbers is 10 shrimp at least.


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## n25philly (Dec 12, 2013)

Ok, cool. It's only 1 pair. It's lightly planted now, but will get more as I find more plants I like and more stuff gets ready to be clipped in my other tanks. My tanks usually end up being jungles. I was looking at some aquabid auctions with around 30 shrimp, so I guess that will be a good start.


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## inthepacific (Oct 21, 2012)

from the experience with my Scarlet Badis who only eat live/frozen food I'd say its not a good idea. I've fed them ton's of Scuds siphoned out of my shrimp tank (there's only two in a heavily planted 5 gallon tank with thick carpet) and they were gone within an hour. All the scuds. I could imagine the shrimp being attacked or hunted.
To add. If its a 10 gallon you may be able to, but i'd let the colony grow out a bit first. But even so, when the shrimp breed they'll likely be attacked and picked at by the Badis after they molt. I have a feeling the fish can tell when the shrimp molt.


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## n25philly (Dec 12, 2013)

Well, the shrimp are intended to be food, I just want a colony big enough that they the badis won't eat all of them. I got a good price on an auction of 50 shrimp on aquabid, that's a lot of shrimp for two tiny little fish. They will either outbreed their predation or I will have two really fat badis.


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## JustJen (Jun 20, 2011)

My best friend kept a pair of badis in her cherry shrimp tank. She started with 10 shrimp, and had no issues growing the population. The badis certainly picked off some babies (as was expected and even intended - they weren't real thrilled with flake/pellet or even frozen food and she didn't want to maintain any live food cultures or make frequent 2 hour trips to the nearest lfs with live food), but it wasn't enough to make a sizeable dent in the population. She did have considerable amounts of moss and hornwort in the tank, giving the shrimp plenty of hiding.


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