# My Dario sp. Scarlet & 'Melon/Flame red' badis



## louis_last (12 Feb 2017)

I plan to try and breed these. Right now I have two Dario Hysginon, I believe they are a male and female pair, and a single male Dario dario.
I've been searching for a few months now for female Dario dario with no luck whatsoever. The male who I found on his own amongst a huge shoal of tetras in a local shop was in a bad way when I bought him. Almost transparent and nearly totally colourless with a sunken stomach, I wasn't even sure he would survive but with care and a diet of livefood he's thriving.
The other picture is what I hope is a female Dario Hysginon, I will try to update this thread with a picture of what I believe to be the male if I can get a decent picture. As well as being obviously more colourful and having larger fins, he is slightly larger and less compact than the 'female', with more pronounced stripes of blue and black on the pelvic fins and a larger black spot on the dorsal fin.
All three share a densely planted tank with some red ramshorn snails, one amano shrimp, four cherry shrimp and no other fish for the time being. I understand from german forums that D. dario and D. hysginon cannot hybridize.
I have never observed any aggression towards the shrimp or snails. Occasionally the male D. hysginon will flare his fins and dance in front of the smaller D. dario but only ever very briefly before apparently deciding he doesn't pose a threat. They don't seem to nip or chase each other and occasionally all three hunt together picking little infusorians off the hamburg mattenfilter in their tank.
If I make sure there's always plenty of livefood in the tank the male D. hysginon takes up residence inside A piece of hollow wood and ventures out less, I believe this is breeding behaviour. If I feed less then generally he's out hunting about with the others.
I feed them copepods which reproduce in the tank as well as unidentified species of Daphnia and Moina I have in isolated cultures and seived zooplankton from a mixed culture started from healthy pond water. The mixed culture contains more than one species of copepod, rotifers, Chydora sp, paramecium and various protozoans. I feed all the livefood cultures on organic Spirulina powder mixed with yeast.
Above all else the fish seem to favour copepods. These are really brilliant and characterful little fish, I hope I can find a female for the little Dario dario. If anyone has any or knows of anywhere selling them I'd love to know!



 


EDIT to add pictures of Dario Hysginon male, he's much harder to photograph than the female or the other male because he tends to hide more during the day. He comes out to feed and display to the female now she's getting fatter but I think the light may be too bright for him as he also displays better colours at night. You should be able to see the differences between him and the female.


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## AlbaAquarist (13 Feb 2017)

Lovely fish, I'm hoping to get a pair or trio of Dario sp. myself. Out of interest what water conditions are you keeping these in?

I remember reading somewhere on the forum that Kesgrave Tropicals an Ebay seller sometimes has female Dario dario.

Looking forward to the updates.


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## castle (13 Feb 2017)

Yeah, Kesgrave said he only had a few Badis left and to wait until this week; so I'm planning on visiting this week, if there are any I'll get a load.


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## louis_last (13 Feb 2017)

AlbaAquarist, I'm embarassed not to be able to give you better information on the water. I keep them relatively cool at 21/22c and would plan on raising that a little once they're in breeding condition - I understand the females get quite plump. I have well water rather than mains and it's fairly neutral with a LOT of iron. There's wood that releases some tannins into the water. I have a more detailed water report from the well that I'll look out and will include the info if I update the thread.
Appreciate the tip about kesgrave tropicals, I've messaged them through ebay so fingers crossed.


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## AlbaAquarist (13 Feb 2017)

louis_last said:


> I'm embarassed not to be able to give you better information on the water



No worries, I was just curious because I've read that most Dario sp. (especially from Myanmar) come from water that is soft but neutral to alkaline. I'm trying to establish if they would be ok in my soft acidic water.


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## castle (15 Feb 2017)

lfs had some, looked like females. 99% sure they're just juvenile males.I've got 150 litre tank running, densely planted but with 12 CPD's in there. Tempted to buy the lfs lot, and hope that one or two grow to be female..


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## louis_last (16 Feb 2017)

Castle I understand the best way to determine sex before maturity other than by their behaviour, is that actual females will never have ANY *red *striping on the body, especially when sub-adult.
Fully mature females may develop some darker stripes or a reddish tint to certain areas but never the distinctive barring of males. I've also never seen a male beyond the fry stage without fairly obvious stripes even in very faintly coloured stressed or sub dominant fish.


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