hey guys, I just moved to china recently... i've always wanted a snakehead, but couldn't find any back in the States and it is illegal. getting a northen snakehead is fairly easy here in china, because it is a food fish, you can find em in any supermarket. here comes my question, because these adult snakeheads are farm raised never had any feeders before... do you think it will take feeders if i buy one and keep it in my tank? the main reason i like snakeheads is because their aggressiveness... theres no point to keep one if it doesn't take life feeders... thanks for your help guys
Channa Argus
- Thread starter ihatepothole
- Start date
I've never kept a snakehead, but most any, if not all, fish will take an appropriately sized feeder if given the shot. Even vegetarian fish will eat a feeder if it's the right size.
You're snakehead's predatory instinct will kick in and he will take the feeders, almost definitely.
You're snakehead's predatory instinct will kick in and he will take the feeders, almost definitely.
Well I got my blotched snakeheads from a Chinese fish market as well. First they were very shy and like to hide a lot, but starvation took over and they start to grab some meaty foods that I dropped. Later they became active eater and now they keep begging for food every time I'm in front of the glass. As for the feeder, they won't really eat it the way a micropeltes eats a feeders fish.
thanks for all the help guys! i got some updates, so the plans have changed. i finally found giant snakeheads here in china!! i was at a huge pet market, there were 800+ store fronts and one of em has it! strangely chinese people call it "pencil fish"
so i bought a 120g tank and a couple of fish today... i set up the tank already and leaving the fish in the store for 2 days. heres what i got, please dont bash me, i know it isnt gonna work out, but these fish are fairly cheap so i dont mind experiments. i got a pair of Giant snakeheads they are about 1 foot long each... a same size RTC and a fat PBass thats about a foot long as well. i'll get some pictures when i pick them up.
so i bought a 120g tank and a couple of fish today... i set up the tank already and leaving the fish in the store for 2 days. heres what i got, please dont bash me, i know it isnt gonna work out, but these fish are fairly cheap so i dont mind experiments. i got a pair of Giant snakeheads they are about 1 foot long each... a same size RTC and a fat PBass thats about a foot long as well. i'll get some pictures when i pick them up.
ihatepothole;3209960; said:thanks for all the help guys! i got some updates, so the plans have changed. i finally found giant snakeheads here in china!! i was at a huge pet market, there were 800+ store fronts and one of em has it! strangely chinese people call it "pencil fish"
I've seen large size RTC doing fine with large size giant snakeheads, but the pbass, I don't think it will have a chance to get up to adulthood. But as you said you just experimenting. Oh BTW I;ve also seen pbass 14" pbass got eaten by 20" RTC.
King-eL;3210199; said:
who has a faster growth rate? pbass or rtc? at the moment the pbass is about 25% larger than the rtc. im loving asia cause the fish are fairly cheap over here... i saw a nice looking foot long wide bar datnoid going for around 100bucks, really tempting
Snakeheads will probably take feeders. Most fish farms have unwanted mosquito fish or wild guppies in them anyway, so the snakehead probably won't be new to live fish as food. Scent is quite a stimulus for Channas; if it doesn't take feeders that are alive and well, cut the feeder a little bit to draw some blood.
If you like aggressiveness, you could always get it to jump out of the water to get food. Mine do so regularly. And they switched from feeders to pellets easily so the same swap vice versa should be easy.
If you like aggressiveness, you could always get it to jump out of the water to get food. Mine do so regularly. And they switched from feeders to pellets easily so the same swap vice versa should be easy.