SPECIES SHOWCASE Scarlet badis

Tiny, intense, staggeringly popular. Just what is it about this pretty red fish that the Instagram community loves so?

AH, THE Scarlet badis. Thrown under the spotlight the world over, and very much in fashion. The species has become, and I imagine shall long continue to be, the fish of choice for the aspiring ‘fish influencer’ on social media. Not that this has done it many favours.

Browsing the #scarletbadis hashtag on Instagram alone brings up around two and a half thousand relevant images, and of these it is possible to look past the colour-boosting, imperfection-removing digital filters to see fish that are occasionally thin, excessively fat, clamped, pale or outright sulky. A tragedy for what is one of the prettiest freshwater fish that nature has to offer.

What exactly has gone wrong here? I fear the Scarlet badis, or Dario dario to give it the full scientific moniker - is a victim of its own elegance, too beautiful a fish to resist, too tempting to try in the smallest set-ups. It is a tiny species, barely able to stretch itself beyond 2.5cm fully grown, making it perfect for the nano tank - in theory, at least.

In the wild

Naturally, Dario dario occurs in northeastern India, perhaps even encroaching into Bangladesh, but definitely within West Bengal, Bihar and Assam. Here it lives a cryptic life, in paradox to its bright livery, spending its time in especially clear, clean streams that bristle with plant life. Grassy Vallisneria, bushy Limnophila, dense clumps of Rotala and Hygrophila; the Scarlet badis immerses itself in all, blissfully hidden away in miniature underwater forests. These streams may not be particularly large, and are usually shallow (all the better for sunlight to punch down and really boost the vibrant flora these fish crave) but essentially, they are flowing. To live in a stream is to live a life of one long, continuous waterchange.