Brendan Redler

Most of the accounts I have heard about Dario Dario and RCS have been fairly peaceful except for newly hatched shrimp. So to add to my 10gal dario dario tank, I ordered some RCS...but recently the dario dario seem to have decimated my snail population, so things are looking less than stellar for my RCS prospects . There are a few shrimp in the tank already, but it seems like the dario dario chase/hunt them when they can. No missing shrimp that I can tell so far, but I'm concerned about dumping in juvenile foodlike items into the top of the tank like I do with live worms/brine shrimp...

So should I try to setup another tank (which I already have on hand) with established tank water and some algae-covered rocks for the RCS and keep the species separate? The only other option is to chuck 'em in and hope they don't get eaten or hunted into hiding (much less desirable if it fails).

SpeedEuphoria

I think it would be a good idea to have then separate, then once the population grows you can add some to the other tank and not worry about loosing them all.

Otherwise, turn off the light and try to manually place the RCS in the bottom or near into good hiding spots to give them a fighting chance.

Asgard

Interesting thread..., I have a lot of RCS, over 300, allready sold/gave away another 100 or so (started with 10 november last year). I have 2 small tanks (60L &17L and a cement tank outdoors) and actually I was thinking of adding Dario dario to keep the population down a little, I started my 17L 2 weeks ago with a selection of about 10 females, some berried, and have over 50 shrimplets in the tank now, so I don't mind if I lose some shrimplets to D. dario.
You say D.dario decimated your snails, what kind of snails where they?, it would be a most pleasant side-effect ,
You also mention you allready have some shrimp, what kind are they and are they adults and being hunted?, I wouldn't want D.dario to eat all of my shrimp. Adult shrimp are about the same size as D. dario, so I figured it wouldn't be a problem to add some D.dario.
I'm very curious how you do, so please keep the thread alive.

Brendan Redler

They don't really hunt and kill the shrimp that I've seen, they just sort of dart at them and the shrimp are fast enough to get away. I have (confirmed) one male RCS, two amano, and probably one female RCS, although I haven't seen her in a while. They were adept at hiding when the badis weren't in there but now you almost never see them.

The snails were just the small ordinary pond snails that have kind of an inflated corkscrew shape to the shell. The sort that only get about 3/8" at the largest. I removed a bunch of the adult snails, but that didn't seem to do much. Then this weekend I fed my dario dario (two of them, one adult, one juvenile) some live brine shrimp, which are by far their favorite food, and left for the weekend. So they weren't fed any food from friday around 3pm until sunday around 8pm. This is by all accounts a reasonable amount of time for fish to go unfed, but if they were used to sizeable amounts of live food daily, they would probably kick into the "EAT EVERYTHING" mode...more than usual

When I first looked in the tank, I first noticed some thread algae because my CO2 had run out, but the high lights were still going. Then as I looked around at the tank I noticed no snails! There are still a few larger ones, but it seems like the small ones are all gone. The interesting part is that I didn't remove any of the very small ones because it was too difficult, so any snail reduction in that size range was due (probably) to the dario dario.


To be honest I doubt they could eat adult shrimp, but they'll probably try. Even if you don't put them in your shrimp tank, GET SOME! They're neat little ambush hunters. Mine are just starting to get use to the tank and people walking by it enough that they will skulk around the edges of the plants and hover around the hairgrass. When they eat, I put live food in and as the worms or brine shrimp start to swim/drift/wiggle to the bottom, the dario dario will sit still near the edges of my hygro and then dart out right before the food disappears into the hairgrass and explode on it.

And just as a heads up, it looks like you were assuming the scientific name of this fish is Dario dario, but it is my impression that it is a variety of Badis bengalensis.

Asgard

Shrimp are group animals, they tend to be very shy if kept with less then 10, if you 've expanded the group you'll see they come more out in the open.

That's good news, I have nematodes, shrimplets, small snails for them breed enchytreen and daphnia myself so I think I'll start looking for some D.dario then. , Well actually I'm looking for Dario hysginon (I keep Danio margaritatus (celestial pearls) and D. hysginon is from Myanmar too), but have never seen them in the trade so D.dario will have to do.

Well actually..., Dario dario = Badis badis bengalensis, (BBB) is just the old name for them, they're now called D.dario

practicalfishkeeping magazine
"The small and colourful dario species Dario dario and D. hysginon are small and colourful species, reaching a length of around 2.5cm/1”, making them ideal for small aquaria.

The Dario species are distinguished from the Badis species by their size and also by having a more truncated caudal fin, the males having prolonged pelvic fins that reach the anal fin and all Dario species miss the bony tubes on their lateral line scales that form a visible lateral line.

Dario dario

They also differ in breeding behaviour (see above). But D. dario is often labelled and sold as B. bengalensis, a name that is actually invalid."

Brendan Redler

Yep, great little fish!

Thanks for the info on the sci. name.

As an interesting side note, mine have much less vibrant red than blue. The "silver-blue" stripes/bands that people say they have are more prominent and they also have incredible blue spots. Only during feeding do they really perk up and turn true red.

Asgard

Could it be that it is not so red because you have only 1 adult?, maybe in a little group the dominant male will display it's colors more often?

Brendan Redler

Maybe, I have two males. One adult and one juvenile that's just starting to color up. They get into a pissing match about every five minutes and they both color up but it's mostly the striping. We'll see how it all pans out though. Shrimp get here tomorrow!!!

Asgard

Made a decision yet?, Are you putting the shrimp (how many are you receiving?) in with the dario's in your 10G or keep them apart?

Brendan Redler

Got the (30) shrimp in the mail today and they are doing great. Separate tank for now because they're all very small. Two or three that look to be around six months old and the rest are about 1/4" and under. NOTE: the ones that are much smaller than 0.25" were not counted in the 30 sold. I'll put some of them in when I feel that they won't get annihilated and when I have enough to spare some should the unfortunate occur.